The things I'd do for you
by Braveatheart1996
Summary: Austin and the gang think they're gonna have the time of their lives at the MMVAs in toronto, but the unthinkable happens when Austin is kidnapped. Now its up to Ally, Trish and Dez to follow the clues he left behind and find Austin before its too late. Some Auslly moments. This is my first A&A fanfic, so please R&R!
1. Surprises and Forebodings

In the United States of America, in the state of Florida, there is a town where the sun is always warm and ocean waves rock against the Atlantic beach. This town is called Miami.

There are many things that make Miami unique, but perhaps the most intriguing thing about Miami has to do with a small music shop called Sonic Boom, a place most people wouldn't glance at twice, but that holds all sorts of surprises to share with the world.

But not this day. Today was an ordinary day in the small music shop in Miami, a quiet day. Customers filed in and out of the shop, some with the intent of buying expensive musical equipment, others with the intent of finding an eye doctor. And every single one of these people, be they customers or blind people, were greeted by a sixteen year old girl with wavy dark brown hair and a petite frame. Her name was Ally Dawson.

Ally had been working in the store since she could walk, as her father owned the store. All the regular customers knew Ally like they knew their own children. She liked her job and loved music more than her own father.

But not today. Today, Ally was feeling off. There was something wrong, something she couldn't quite put her finger on, like the feeling you get right before a storm. It wasn't often Ally felt like this. She was an intellectual person. The only instinct Ally followed was her musical instinct, and she liked it that way. So, being Ally, she dismissed her foreboding. Must be hormones, she thought. Nothing's wrong. This happens every month.

Ally had just finished with a costumer. She sat down behind the counter and, glancing around to check for eavesdroppers, she covertly opened her super personal, super-secret songbook and diary. Ally wrote everything in that book. Most of the time, she opened it to add an entry. Today, she just wanted to read old passages. She flipped to a random page, and read;

Hey, I will always stay, by your side forever

Cuz we're better together.

Ally smiled. She'd written these lyrics down a long time ago, but had used them more recently in a song she wrote for her friend and partner in music, Austin. It seemed like only yesterday, but had really been a year ago when Austin had used one of Ally's songs to become an overnight internet sensation. Since then, they'd made their first album. Ally always had it playing in the music store. She and Austin were both extremely proud of everything they'd accomplished. Of course, their friends Trish and Dez had helped too. Trish was the manager. Dez made the music videos. And speaking of Trish…

"Guess who got a job at the movie theatre!"

Yep, right on time.

Ally slammed her book shut and tossed it under the counter. She looked up at her best friend and smiled. "I thought by now you would've been fired from every job they offer in Miami."

"There's always knew jobs." She countered. "And it's not like I've never held down a job. I'm still Austin manager."

"You don't get paid for that" Ally pointed out. Trish ignored her.

"Speaking of which, I got big news for Austin. Have you seen him?"

Ally shrugged. "Not since yest-"

"Duck!"

With an instinctive speed born out of spending every day dealing with Dez and Austin's many games involving flying objects, both Trish and Ally hit the deck. Just in time, too, because at that moment, a pineapple came flying over their heads, crashing into the drum set at the back of the room. The girls stood up and turned to face the culprit. Or, better yet, culprits.

"That was awesome!" Dez exclaimed, a childish grin on his face. Austin dashed in after him, with an equally childish expression, and they high fived.

Ally turned to the ginger. "Tab?" She asked, not needing to say more.

"You know it." Dez answered, and Ally quickly jotted down the damage. Once, the damage to the instruments would have driven her nuts, but she'd gotten used to it- sort of.

Austin ran over to the drums to pick up the pineapple. "We invented a new game" He said. "We call it pineapple football."

"It's like football, but with a pineapple!" Dez added. They all rolled their eyes.

"Whatever." Trish said. "I got bigger news. Everyone, gather around."

The boys rushed over to the counter. Austin jumped onto it, swinging his legs over to get comfortable and lay down, right next to Ally. Ally tried to glare at him, and he smiled, which, of course, made her smile too. Ally's heart started to flutter and she had to look away. This had been happening more and more around Austin. When he smiled, her heart fluttered. When they touched, a feeling of warmth would spread through her, and it was almost electric. But Ally didn't have time to figure out what it all meant, and she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to, anyways. Their friendship was perfect.

"Ok" Trish said, shaking Ally back to reality. "So I got a letter earlier today…" She pulled out an official looking envelope and handed it to Austin. He took it and quickly opened it. His eyes darted across the page,and his whole face lit up. He honest-to-god squealed. "We've been invited to the MMVAs!"

Shock filled Ally as she processed his words. "No way!" She said, ripping the letter out of his hands. She scanned the page, and indeed, Austin had been telling the truth. She looked up at him and beamed. "This is HUGE!" She threw her arms around him in a victory hug. He squeezed her back. Hugging was natural to them now. Ally loved it every time.

"We get on the plane tomorrow." Trish said, as if it were like any other event. "And we've all got tickets, too, so we get to be there this time."

"Awesome." Austin said. "I couldn't imagine going without you guys." Ally knew he meant it. Austin Moon was nothing if not loyal.

"Awesome!" Dez said. "I've always wanted to see the pyramids!"

"It's in Toronto, dummy! There are no Pyramids!" Trish chastised. Ally rolled her eyes. Those two were always like that, even if they secretly adored each other. Well, Ally liked to think they secretly adored each other. She loved romance.

Ally had been expecting Austin to laugh at the exchange, like he normally would have. When he didn't, she looked over at him. Instead of his usual cheery face, he looked worried. Alarms immediately went off in Ally's head. Austin was a very easy going guy, and everything seemed to make him smile. Worry didn't look natural on him. Her earlier sense of foreboding returned.

"You okay, Austin?" Ally asked quietly, so as the others, who were still bickering about whether or not there were pyramids in Toronto, wouldn't hear.

Austin looked over, and his worried expression was instantly replaced by his usual cheery one. In fact, it was such a dramatic change that Ally began to wonder if she had really seen the worry.

"Of course." He answered. "I'm really excited, are you? I can't believe our video is that popular. This is so cool!" He giggled and jumped off the counter. "I gotta go, me and Dez promised my mom that we would get pizza for supper." He said, interrupting the argument. Dez instantly turned tail and ran out the door. The argument must have gotten heated. Austin smiled and ran out the door after him.

"Be here tomorrow at nine!" Trish yelled after the pair. She turned back to Ally. "I hope they heard that. I am not going to chase them down to catch a flight. Too much work."

"Of course it is." Ally mockingly agreed. "Will we need a new song?"

"Nope." She said. "Just songs from the album. I'll be back tomorrow morning, okay? Be ready!" And with that, she turned tail and skipped away, runway style.

Ally smiled. She decided she must have imagined Austin's earlier worry. Either that, or he had developed a bit of stage fright (barring the fact the that was impossible). Surely, everything was fine. Great, even. And this would be the greatest experience of their lives.


	2. Plane Rides and Promises

**queenc1 thank you for my first ever review!**

**Onto the next chapter…**

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN AUSTIN AND ALLY!**

The plane ride was horrible.

Ally hadn't really given much thought to exactly how high in the sky planes were. She'd never been on a plane before, and looking at one from the ground, it had always seemed like they weren't that far away, even though she knew they flew thousands of miles above the ground. Being in a plane was a completely different experience.

Ally had gotten a window seat, and had watched the ground go further and further away as she grew more and more terrified. It was like her stage fright, only a thousand times worse, because she couldn't get away. She tried closing her eyes so as not to see how distant the ground had become, but if anything, it made things worse. She could sense the lack of solid ground, and the distant between her and it. She could feel every part of the plane as if it were part of her own body, and every weakness the plane had. It no longer became a question of IF the plane would crash. It was a question of WHEN.

Her friends had instantly noticed that something was wrong, and though she couldn't trust herself to talk, they figured it out. They then spent the rest of the four hours citing statistics and making jokes in an effort to make her feel better. It only made it worse. So, for the entire four hours, Ally sat there, her eyes wide, body tense and a chunk of hair in her mouth.

When the plane touched down, the first thing Ally did was find a public washroom and throw up. She instantly felt better.

"Can we drive back to Miami?" Ally asked her friends as soon as she felt presentable enough to find them.

"We'll see." Austin said. He smiled at her and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Feeling better?"

"Yeah." Ally said, smiling back. "I just never want to do that again." His smile grew wider and he dropped his hand. "Maybe Trish can fix something." He said. Ally beamed. She knew that Trish couldn't do anything to get alternate means of transport back to Miami, but it was sweet thing to say.

"I didn't know you were scared of flying." Trish said, sounding more excited than worried, but that was Trish's way, and Ally knew it.

"Neither did I" Ally told her. "It was my first time."

Dez chuckled, and they all looked over. He pointed to a security guard and dog. "I didn't know dogs had people for pets."

Everyone laughed, and Ally's fear was all but forgotten.

It took a long time for the foursome to get out of the airport. Pearson International was a very big place, even though there were signs everywhere telling you exactly where to go. Only someone like Dez could get lost in Pearson, and he would have, too, if the others hadn't kept steering him in the right direction.

Eventually, though, they did get out, and a bus got them from the airport to the hotel they were staying at. It wasn't anything fancy- just a holiday inn. Trish's excuse was that she didn't want fans surrounded them all day, so she had to book at a place where the fans wouldn't go looking. Ally didn't mind- the paparazzi could creep her out sometimes.

Trish had gotten two adjacent rooms, one for the girls and one for the boys. They checked in and made their way up to their rooms, flopping the bags on the bed. Ally had barely sat down when Trish started to push for something fun.

"We have exactly twenty-four hours before we need to be at the MMVAs. That gives us just enough time to cover three quarters of the mall- providing we leave now." She turned and headed for the door, both boys closely behind her.

"Not so fast!" Ally yelled, jumping up from the bed. "Austin needs a speech."

He looked confused. "A what?"

Ally put on her fiercest expression. "You need to prepare a speech in case you win."

"But what if I don't win?"

"Then you don't need a speech."

"Well then-"

"No!" Ally held up her hand. Most of the time, she hated bringing down his hopes, but this was an exception. "We are writing a speech. Then we can go to the mall."

"Fine." He put on a pouty face, which he somehow managed to make look cute.

"Well, you won't catch me writing anything." Said Trish. She turned and grabbed Dez by the wrist. "Come on, dummy. We're going shopping." The last thing Austin and Ally saw before the hotel room door closed was Dez's 'Help me!' look. They smiled.

The speech actually only took about twenty minutes to complete, by which time Austin's sugar high- which he'd been living off of for the past 12 hours- had faded. Claiming to be too tired to shop, he flopped on the couch and turned on the TV.

"You know they have completely different channels here, right?" Ally noted as she sat down on the couch next to Austin, watching him flip through the channels.

"Cartoons are cartoons anywhere in the world." Austin said. Ally had to agree- even though she didn't watch cartoons. Actually, she didn't really watch any TV. And apparently, neither did Austin, because as soon as he set down the remote, he opened up his laptop.

"What's the point of having the TV on if you won't watch it?" Ally said, reaching for the remote. He saw this, and snatched it away.

"Because if I gave you the remote, you would've turned it to some documentary, and it would've put me to sleep in five seconds." He joked. Ally smiled because, well, it was true. She decided to change the subject.

"What are you doing?" She tried to peer over his shoulder and see the screen, but he turned it away to block her view. The look on his face was identical to the one Ally would get whenever someone reached for her songbook diary.

"Just checking my email."

Ally raised her eyebrows, but didn't press for details. If Austin was keeping something from her, than he had a good reason for doing so, and he'd talk about it when he was ready. So instead, she opened her book and wrote down a few lyrics that had come to mind earlier while she'd been trying to distract herself on the plane.

After a couple of minutes, Ally glanced up at Austin, only to see a slight frown on his face. Whatever he was reading was worrying him, and that troubled Ally. Austin didn't worry. He never had anything to worry about.

"Is everything okay, Austin?" She asked. She felt like this question had been coming up too much lately.

He looked up, and for a second, seemed surprised to see her there. Ally recognised it as a state of reading, when a person gets so absorbed that they forget about their surroundings. She just never expected to see that in Austin, since the biggest book he'd ever read was the book of world records.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. It's just, you know, big day tomorrow." He said, his natural grin returning.

Ally supposed she couldn't really question that, what with her stage fright and all. It just wasn't very, well, Austin. She tried to smile back, but it didn't come as naturally to her as it did to him. "Austin." He started, making sure she had his full attention. "You know you can tell me anything, right? No matter what."

Austin's expression softened, and he practically glowed. She knew he loved it when she expressed her feelings to him. "Of course I know that, Ally." He said. "I can always count on you. Don't worry; I'm fine." He seemed ready to go back to his computer, but at the last moment, changed his mind. Her turned back toward her, a conflict in his eyes that was just beyond Ally's comprehending. He reached out and put his hand on Ally's. "Can you promise me something?"

Ally nodded. As if she could've said no with him looking at her like that.

"Promise me we'll always be close, no matter what."

Ally blinked in shock, searching for the right words to respond with. Why would he need her promise for something like that? Wasn't it implied? Is he joking? She searched his eyes. No, he really meant it.

"Oh Austin." She said working to keep a frown off her face. "Of course we'll always be close."

Austin smiled at her, and opened his mouth to say something else, but at that exact moment, Dez came stumbling in the room, weighed down by several shopping bags. He shot the pair a look of betrayal as if to say it's your fault I'm being forced to carry this stuff. Austin immediately jumped up to help his best friend, just as Trish walked in. She sighed dramatically.

"There was so much, I ran out of money to spend. I should've brought more." She lit up. "Maybe I could get a job for our time here…"

"How did you spend that much money? It's only been 35 minutes." Ally inquired. She'd been under the impression that Trish had brought about 2000$ of shopping money.

Instead of answering out loud, Trish took out a small shopping bag from her purse and pulled out a pair of earrings. They had genuine diamonds hanging on what Ally guessed was almost pure gold chain. She stifled a laugh.

"They were calling to me." She explained in an adoring voice. "I've still got some money left, though. I figured you guys might want something-"

"Great!" Everyone turned to Austin, who had spoken. "There are a few things I need to get. Might as well go now."

"Oh, then I'll go with you." Ally said, reaching for her purse.

"No!" Austin yelled, a bit of panic in his voice. Everyone stared. He blinked, and quickly recovered. "It's gonna be a surprise." He said.

The other three glanced at each other, intrigued, and Ally complied. "OK. Just don't take too long."

"I'll be back in a flash." In a flash, he picked up the money Trish hadn't spent and sped out the door.

Dez dismissed Austin's behaviour right away and started playing with a bouncy ball, but Trish turned to Ally, incredulous.

"What was that about?"

Ally shook her head at the door. She was clueless. And Ally Dawson hated being clueless.

"I don't know."


	3. Tears and Chaos

"Ally! Ally, wake up!"

Ally found herself being shaken out of a deep slumber- and a very good dream- by the frantic calls of her best friend, who was shaking her so hard, Ally wouldn't be surprised if she'd pulled a few neck muscles. She grunted, pouting at her best friend. "What?"

As Ally blinked away her drowsiness, she became immediately aware that something was wrong. Trish's hair was poofed up and tangled. She had spots of red across her face and her pink, puffy eyes suggested she'd shed a few tears. This is what really scared Ally- her friend hadn't shed a tear since the day she turned six. Something was very, very wrong, and Ally wasn't sure she wanted to hear it.

"It's Austin. He's vanished." Tears started to cloud Trish's eyes again as she blurted the words out loud.

Within seconds, Ally had shot out of bed. Shock and fear coursed through her as her highly over-imaginative mind started to dream up a thousand different scenarios- all of them bad. She'd been worried about him, but this was the last thing she'd been expecting. And she'd been right. She most certainly had NOT wanted to hear it.

"Are… Are you sure?" Ally muttered. Calm, stay is probably all a misunderstanding.

Trish just shook her head in dismay. "We've looked everywhere. He never came back to the room last night, so we started at the mall, but the security guy said he had left ages ago. So we looked everywhere and anywhere else- Sporting events, amusement parks, music stores, the MMVAs, you name it. It's like, he just vanished off the face of the earth."

He never came back last night. The words pierced her like a sword. She should've noticed. How had she not noticed? She should've been watching him- especially with the way he'd been acting over the past couple of days. She should've insisted to go with him.

This is all my fault. Ally thought.

Ally felt tears start to form in her own eyes as true terror overcame her. She felt her legs give out, and was only vaguely aware of falling into Trish's arms. Austin was gone. Vanished. He could be dead, for all they knew. And the worst part was, he'd known something about it.

He'd known something about it…

Ally shot out of Trish's arms. He'd known something! All his strange behaviours, maybe there was a pattern to it all. A trail to follow.

A way to find Austin.

Austin may have vanished, but he's not gone until Ally lets him go. There were always clues. If Austin had seen something like this coming, he would've left them clues. He wouldn't just leave her.

Ally locked her gaze with Trish with newfound intensity. There must be a way to find him. There had to be. "Did you call the police?"

Trish nodded, slightly overwhelmed by Ally's reaction. "They're downstairs. They want to talk to you."

Ally nodded and began to head for the door, when a new thought occurred to her. She turned back to Trish. "Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?" Ally felt a little hurt that her best guy friend and partner had gone missing, and she was apparently the last to hear about it.

"Dez was supposed to come get you hours ago. He's still in the gift shop." Trish said, an apologetic look on her face. Ally nodded. It all made sense now.

The two girls rushed downstairs. When they got there, Ally had to blink a couple times to make sure that she was really seeing what she thought she saw. When Trish said that the police were downstairs, she'd expected maybe five or six police men, an investigator, you know, what any person would expect in an investigation.

Boy, had she been wrong.

The lobby was filled, and she meant FILLED, with police men. Ally wouldn't have been surprised if she'd been told half of the city's police force was in that lobby at that moment. To add to the already overwhelming sight, there were reporters left right and center. Ally didn't know how they'd found out about Austin's disappearance, but with him being famous and all, she supposed she shouldn't be that surprised. Their attention, as opposed to being on the police themselves, were completely occupied with the riot going on outside the hotel door. Ally could only just make out the fans through the window, if she didn't know better, she would've sworn some of them were more upset about this than she was.

Ally could feel her stage fright began to swell up in her chest as she took in the scene. It didn't matter that she wasn't performing. She knew that the second those reporters, not to mention the fans, caught sight of her, she'd be swarmed, being asked questions she didn't know the answer to. For a few seconds, she seriously considered turning tail and running as far away from the crowd as possible.

But no. She couldn't do that. Not with Austin safety on the line. Her feelings weren't worth that.

With a little help from Trish and her intimidating nature, the girls managed to weave their way through the crowd of officers to the detective in charge of the investigation. He was easy to spot in the police swarm- he was the only one not wearing a uniform. He was standing on the other side of the room from the reporters and fans, which Ally was immensely glad of. He seemed to be talking on some sort of radio, as he had his hand to his ear. He didn't notice them approach. In fact, he didn't notice them at all until both girls were standing in front of him, looking up expectantly.

He blinked in surprise when he finally looked, and when he recognised the girls, he ended the conversation he was having on his radio and turned his full attention to Ally.

"Ally Dawson, is it?" He said, offering his hand. She took it, nodding. He sighed.

"I'm very sorry that we have to meet this way- my daughter is a big fan of your work." Ally smiled at him, and he continued. "Usually we don't initiate a search like this until the victim has been gone more than 48 hours, but with Austin Moon's fame, this is a special case. I don't suppose you have any idea where he could've gone?"

"No." Ally said, her earlier intensity returning. "But he hasn't quite been himself lately. I could swear he was worried about coming to Toronto, which is weird, because he doesn't have stage fright or anything."

The detective raised his eyebrows. "Go on"

Ally continued. "When he was checking his emails last night, he seemed unnerved by something he was reading." Ally took a breath. "I think he saw this coming."

The detective frowned, adding the pieces Ally gave him to the puzzle in his mind. "But, if he saw it coming, why would he walk into a trap? Better yet, why wouldn't he tell you about it? I hear you two are very close." Ally frowned, trying to work out that particular mystery.

It turned out to be Trish who came up with an answer. "Maybe whoever he was talking to threatened us. Austin is very loyal. It would be so like him to walk into a trap to protect his friends."

The detective smiled, impressed. "That's a very good theory." He said. "If you don't mind, we'd like to take a look at Austin's computer and, with permission, search his emails."

"Of course." Ally said, only partially processing on his words. Her mind was somewhere else. The detective took in her expression, and his face softened. "Don't worry." He said. "I'll find him. I've done this for years, and I like to think I've gotten pretty good at it." Ally chuckled for his benefit. He was only trying to help, after all. He handed her his card. "Call me if anything else comes up." He said, and with that, he grabbed a police man to go help him look through Austin's room.

As Ally watched the detective walk away, all her energy seemed to fade away, and she slid down the wall, cradling her knees to her chest. All she could think about were Trish's earlier words, how it would be like Austin to walk into a trap to protect his friends. It was true. Too true.

Ally felt, more than saw, her best friend sit down next to her on the floor. She put her arm around Ally, and said in a soft tone "Are you okay?"

Ally turned to look at Trish. She had a million answers on her lips, everything from a soft 'no' to an angry 'what do you think?'.

Instead, she burst into tears.


	4. Phone calls and Emails

Ally hadn't slept well that night.

It had taken approximately two hours for the police to complete their investigation of the room they'd been staying in, then another hour for them to gather all the things they needed to continue the investigation from home. Ally had tried to help them (After she finished crying) but it had soon become obvious that she was nothing more than a nuisance. So, she'd retreated to Austin's room, lay on his bed and refused to move for anyone or anything, snuggling with the stuffed dolphin she'd given to him a long time ago.

Trish had left her alone for the rest of the day, and that night. She needed time to think, and Trish knew it. But by the next day, it had become a worrying matter. Trish had tried several times that day to get Ally to move, to talk, to do anything at all. She hated seeing her friend like this, even though sometimes she felt like pulling an Ally and curling up into a ball herself. But that just wasn't her way. Trish took things head on. She was a fighter, and she was proud of it. But no matter what Trish tried, Ally wouldn't budge, and Trish knew, deep down, that the only person who could've pulled her out of her depression was Austin.

Trish had watched Austin and Ally's relationship grow stronger during the year. Sometimes, she was jealous of the effect Austin seemed to have on her self-esteem. Other times, she felt excited over the potential of their growing relationship. Most of the time, she just felt slightly left out. It was something she had in common with Dez- a fact that scared the crap out of her.

Dez wasn't taken Austin's disappearance well, Trish knew. Even though Trish hated him most of the time, she actually knew him quite well. And even though he seemed to be handling the news extremely well, Trish could see the bluff. It was very subtle; he was more scattered, losing track of everything, his laugh was too forceful, and he was trying a bit too hard to comfort everyone else, as if he was talking to himself more than anyone else.

Dez wasn't upset, Trish realised. He was hysterical.

It was hard to see her friends like that, and Trish didn't know what to do. She'd tried her best to talk to them, and neither had responded to her efforts. All she could do at this point was manager stuff, brushing off reporters and fans and taking care of the MMVAs (which Austin was only just missing). Once that was done, it took all of her concentration and positivity not to end up like her friends.

So Trish took up her magazines and poured over the pages, trying to distract herself with the useless articles and tidbits.

Trish stayed like this for the entire day, almost as still as Ally herself, who was in the next room. She didn't notice the sun go down, nor did she notice when the sun rose again. She didn't hear Dez floundering in and out of the rooms, nor did she hear his snores when he finally crashed on Ally's bed. She was in her own world, doing everything in her power to hold back reality.

But she could only stay like that for so long, and reality came crashing down on her when the phone rang.

"This is Trish."

"Yes, hello. This is detective Mark." Trish grunted. That was the name of the detective who was in charge of Austin's case.

"We've been pouring over Austin emails, and we found a few disturbing things. If it isn't a problem, we would like to discuss our findings with all three of you, in person. If you could just come down to the police station."

Trish's heart came crashing down, settling in her stomach. She didn't want to know what they found. Because it had to be bad, or else they wouldn't be insisting on seeing them in person to talk. But she HAD to know. It was very confusing.

"We'll be there in ten minutes." Trish said, trying to imagine what she could say that would get her friends to budge.

"Thank you." And with that, Trish hung up.

Trish made her way over to Ally first. She knew Ally was awake, which was ridiculous, as she was beginning to realise exactly what time (and day) it was since the girl had collapsed on the bed. But she could hardly blame her. Trish hadn't slept either.

"Ally" She said quietly, putting a hand on her friend.

The girl grunted, but made no further acknowledgement of Trish's presence.

Trish sighed. "The police called." She said, still with a quiet voice. "They found some stuff in Austin's email. They want to talk to us."

Ally looked up, and the look on her face told Trish that she was feeling exactly the way Trish had felt earlier. She didn't want to know, but she HAD to.

And that was what finally made Ally move off Austin's bed. Trish decided to ignore the fact that she still held on tight to he stuffed dolphin.

It took the two of them a good couple of minutes to wake up Dez- he was a very sound sleeper. It was Ally who finally woke him up by ringing a cowbell in his ear, making him jump a couple feet into the air. In any other situation, Trish would've burst out laughing.

The three of them got ready in silence, none of them wanting to talk about what they might hear from the police. Before Austin vanished, Trish would've done everything in her power to fill the silence with something- anything. But now, she worried that someone else would break the silence, thus forcing her to talk. No one did.

It took them five minutes to reach the station, which was strange because they had walked. Trish had expected to be mobbed by fans demanding answers the second they left the hotel doors, but there hadn't been anyone waiting for them. Maybe they were being nice and leaving them alone while they tried to sort through this mess- or maybe they were scared of Trish. She figured it was probably the latter.

They'd barely entered the police station when they found themselves being heralded by detective Mark. The three immediately made their way over to him. No one tried to stop them.

"So, we poured through Austin's email account." He started. "And it seems as though he'd been receiving threatening emails of a sort. We've got our best trying to trace the account back to its source-"

"Wait, what?" Ally said, her eyes wide. Trish would've been glad to hear her talk, had it been for anything else. Inside, her heart was breaking. Threatening emails. So he wasn't a random target. This made things much, much worse.

Ally continued before the detective could answer. "He can't have been getting threatening emails. He would've told us- he tells us everything." Her eyes were begging for some sort of mistake.

"Not in this case." The detective said, handing them a paper, which turned out to be a copy of the emails Austin had received.

Hello Austin Moon. I've been watching you. Don't look now- there's nothing to see, anyways. You could never find me. I'm just going to tell you something, and you're going to listen, because if you don't, I'm going to pay a little visit to your redhead friend, and it will be the last time you ever see him. You got my little gift, right? Don't think that I wouldn't. So here it is-stop playing music. Give up your career. Nothing too difficult. Just give up your fame, and I'll leave your little friend alone.

Austin- it seems you didn't follow our bargain. I'd follow through on my promise now, but it seems the redhead doesn't mean that much to you. How about the Mexican? Or both? I'm warning you Moon. No more performing.

Well Austin, congratulations on being invited to the MMVAs! Of course, you don't know that yet, do you? It seems as if you'll be in my home town- all the better for getting close to your friends. But, if you want to keep them safe, I suggest you refrain from coming at all. Consider this your last warning.

Austin. Poor, poor Austin. Don't you care about your friends? Oh but you do, don't you? I'm just not threatening the right friend- the one you care about the most. I've seen the way you look at your cute little songwriter. Ally Dawson, is it? Yes, she's certainly something special. Here's my proposal. Come meet me tonight at the place your parents met- I hope they told you that story. Because if you don't, I will snatch your little songwriter and slit her throat, and film it so you can live every moment of it.

Ally moaned, and sunk to the floor, curling up in a ball. Dez began muttering nonsense. Trish didn't hear them. She couldn't see them. But she knew exactly how they felt. Austin had walked into a trap- for them. Which made everything their fault.


	5. Him and Her

**Hi guys! **

**Since I didn't post a chapter yesterday, or the day before, I'm posting another chapter for you, and you finally get to find out what's happening to Austin! **

**Hope you enjoy! **

**Disclaimer (again): I don't own Austin and ally**

Austin hated the dark.

He'd always had a fear of the dark, ever since he was little, yet he'd never known why. There had never been monsters under his bed, or in his closet. He just hated not being able to see what was coming. Almost as bad were red lights- which was the only light source in the entire cave, at the exact opposite end of the room from where he sat. Red lights scared him to death.

He probably knew that.

He knew everything about Austin- everything he hated, everything he feared.

Everything he loved.

Austin didn't know how long he'd been in the dark. All he knew was that he hadn't slept a wink of it. He wouldn't let him. He kept coming back, each time with a new torture to put to use. It had started off small- a slap in the face, threatening, things like that. It had gotten progressively worse by the hour, and Austin was pretty sure that he had a few broken bones. He'd gotten tired of talking pretty quickly- He liked to hear screams. The verbal insults were for Her.

She was a mystery to him. The only thing he knew about her was that she had long, pale hair. It was hard to tell in the glow of the red light what other features she may have. She wasn't tied up like Austin, and she got food, but he got the sense that she was as much a prisoner here as he was. She slept on a sleeping bag in the far corner of the room, and though she had a guitar and a small piano (what Austin wouldn't give to be able to play one of those- lucky girl) she didn't do much other than watch him. The only time she moved was when He came downstairs. Then she would cower in the corner, making herself as small as possible, trying to avoid his attention. When He was done with Austin, He would go over to her and throw insult after insult toward her, though He never touched her. Austin thought that this wasn't so much because He didn't want to, but because she was so frail, one good punch would probably kill her.

This happened every time He approached. Austin got the sense that it was a routine, which meant she'd been here a very long time. But they'd never talked, so Austin didn't know.

In fact, the only thing he did know was that she wasn't helping him. And that was all he had to know.

Or so he thought.

Austin had been in the middle of mentally playing his album, when he heard Him approaching. He had no name- He was just a dark figure, an evil bastard who was making him suffer in every possible way, just because He thought it was fun. But Austin would take it, so long as it meant his friends were safe. He'd do anything to make sure his friends were safe.

There was no talking when He came down this time. This worried Austin, because it meant he was in a bad mood. His fears were confirmed when He started the meeting with a blow to his shoulder. Something cracked. Austin screamed.

A perverted grin twisted his face at the first scream. The first one was always his favorite. It was always the loudest. The grin stayed as he continued the senseless beating. A blow to the chest, the knee, the hands, the other shoulder. The thing that made all this especially painful was the fact that most of these were already broken in several areas.

Austin wanted desperately not to scream, to show this jerk that he couldn't control everything about him, but he knew that if he did try to defy Him, He would go after Ally. He said so. So Austin screamed, not holding back an ounce of the agony he was feeling, desperately hoping that it would be enough.

A new sense of pain came when he hit him on the head- hard. Up until that point, the head had been left alone (barring his earlier slapping) and it was a very strange experience. He felt a shockwave roll up from his neck, and his vision began to swim. His head was pounding harder than it would be if he had a migraine, and yet he couldn't really process it. Everything had become a jumble in his mind.

Although he wasn't too out of it- yet- to notice Her.

Austin hadn't seen her approach, but was suddenly aware that she was there, standing in front of him, blocking the path of the onset of beatings. He didn't know what to feel. Should he be glad she'd finally come to help him? Or angry that she might be putting his friends in danger?

He didn't try to get around her, or shove her out of the way, which was very strange to Austin. But it wasn't nearly as strange as her whispering something, and Him simply retreating, muttering, and running up the stairs.

If she had that sort of power, than why was Austin still here?

All of this was forgotten, however, when she turned to face him.

It was the first time Austin had seen her up close, and thus the first time he could really take in her features. He realised that his eyes were so adjusted that he could see her just as well as if her were staring at her in broad daylight. Her hair wasn't just pale, he realised. It was pure white. It cascaded down her back in waves that seemed impossibly smooth. Her skin was pale, almost to the point where it should be translucent. She wasn't as small up close as she seemed from afar, but she still had a very small frame. Add that to her youthful features and clear skin, it was nearly impossible to tell her age. He would say ten or eleven, but there was a look in her eyes, a look of experience that made her seem much older.

And her eyes. Even in the dark room, they shone, bright like two bright, curious rubies in a flame.

She was an Albino.

"I'm sorry." She said. Her voice was soft and melodious. She sounded sincere. "I know you must hate me. But there's nothing I can do. There's no way out."

Austin blinked at her, still taking in the eyes. "But you just made him go away. That's something you can do."

She blinked, simply looking confused. "That's only because he hit you.'

"He hits me all the time."

"No, he hit you in the head."

It was Austin's turn to look confused. "What's it matter to him?"

She tilted her head at him. "He likes to see pain. If he gives you a concussion, and you go into a coma, he can't hurt you anymore. He doesn't like that." She tried to reach for the bump on his head, but Austin turned away.

"If it'll stop the pain, let it be. I don't know how much more I can take." His voice cracked.

She just blinked at him, unfazed. It suddenly occurred to Austin that she'd seen this before. Austin felt sick knowing that he wasn't the first victim. That was probably what made her eyes seem so old.

"But" she started. "If you go in a coma, than there won't be anything for your friends to rescue."

Austin was shocked. Rescue. Why hadn't he thought about that before? His friends and family would all be looking for him. Surely, together, they would find him. Austin was okay with that- so long as they all spent every minute of every day near a police force. Austin looked up, offering his head wound to the girl. She reached forward and began to wrap it with bandages he'd only just noticed.

"So," She said as she patted his wound. "Do you hate me?" The strange thing was, it sounded as though this actually mattered to her. Austin tried to smile, but it hurt too much, and he quickly gave up.

"No" He said. "I don't hate you. You're a prisoner too- just a different kind of prisoner."

She smiled at him, genuinely pleased. Austin decided she had a very nice smile. "Most people don't see it that way."

Her words brought back to mind something disturbing. "Have- have there been many others- before me?" He said quietly.

Her smile faded, and Austin was sad to see it go. He felt bad for asking. "Yes." She said. "There have been many others."

Austin's eyes widened as a new thought occurred to him. He'd thought about it before, but…

"How long have you been here?" Austin hated himself for asking, but he was curious, and nothing could hold back Austin Moon's curiosity.

A haunted look crossed her face. "Since I was four." He looked confused, and this made her smile return, only this time, it lacked any warmth. "I'm thirteen and a half."

Oh. "I'm Austin, by the way." He said, just as she finished tending his head. She began to retreat, as she did, she muttered her response.

"I'm Emma."


	6. Siblings and Friends

He didn't return the next hour.

Nor the next.

Austin figured it had to do with the whole head injury thing- which he still didn't quite understand. Austin understood that He liked prolonged torture, but he genuinely didn't seem that interested in him. But he didn't dwell on it. In fact, he took the opportunity to rest a little, managing sleep for the first time in how many hours. The sleep was disturbed, however, by Emma, who woke him up every few hours to stop him from slipping into a coma.

Every time she woke him up, they would talk. Austin hadn't realised how much he'd been craving normal human interaction, and was extremely glad that she was finally opening up to him. Not that she talked about herself. In fact, she was immensely curious about him. She would throw question after question at him, and Austin would answer as best as he could, just to keep her talking.

"Tell me about your family." She asked, after waking him up for the third time. It was one topic she'd been avoiding up until now.

Austin sighed, bringing up his memories of his family. "I have a mom and dad, but no siblings. My parents own a mattress store and they call themselves the mattress king and queen, which is super embarrassing for me. My dad used to tell me that music was a waste of time, that I had like, a bazillion to one chance of making it. I showed him." They'd already covered the whole Austin is a star bit.

She cocked her head at him, something she seemed to do a lot when something didn't make sense to her. "You don't have any siblings?"

"No"

"No lost siblings? Someone who might've died a long time ago?"

"No…" Austin suddenly felt wary. Where was she going with this?

"Oh" she said, looking down. Something about that had upset her, he realised. Did she think that he should have a sibling? Or was it something else- something she knew about, but he didn't? Then again, she'd spent most of her life in this basement. What could she know?

"What about your friends?" She said, her face lighting up with curiosity again. Austin never ceased to be stunned by her short attention span. Of course, Austin had a pretty short attention span himself. But the change in her was so instantaneous- so dramatic. It was almost funny to watch.

"I have exactly three close friends." Austin answered. "Dez has been my best friend forever. I can't remember a time when I didn't know him. He knows all my secrets, even the ones I don't tell him. He's always been there for me, in his own way. He's a good friend." Austin smiled. "He's the best film maker I know. Wouldn't have any videos if it weren't for him."

"Then there's Trish. She's tough, but pretty easy going. She's never held down a job for as long as I've known her, which would be a little over a year. She always fights with Dez. None of us know quite what to make of their relationship. Ally says its very love-hate."

"And Ally?" Emma was looking at him intensely, and Austin realised with a chuckle that this was what she'd been waiting to hear about.

"Ally is my best friend, my partner, and my songwriter. I could never do what I do without her- she's awesome. She always knows exactly what I'm thinking. She's got an amazing singing voice and she's almost as good with instruments as I am- even better with some." Austin thought back to the time they'd had a piano competition, and grinned. "She could be an awesome performer, but she has stage fright, so she just writes songs. She knows my style, so her songs are always perfect. Like her." He sighed. "Sometimes, I feel like she should be getting more recognition. No one really knows who she is- she can be pretty shy. She even chews her hair when she's nervous. Actually, she has a lot of weird habits like that, but to me, they're just cute. You should see her try to dance." He laughed, and even though it hurt, it felt really good to know he could still do that. It quickly faded. "She's probably worried sick." His frown deepened. "I might never see her again."

Emma didn't answer. She had her head down again, looking troubled. Austin was learning not to like it when she was troubled. It always meant bad things for him- or others. "Emma?"

She looked up, and he could see a frown on her face. "What is it?" Austin pushed.

She sighed. "It's true." She said. "You might never see her again. That's the point"

Austin was confused. Emma could be difficult to understand at times. All this time in the dark, and she wasn't exactly… sane. "What do you mean?"

Her expression softened as she regarded him. "No matter how you come out of this ordeal, if you live or die, you won't have any lasting damage. It's a guy thing- they can get over stuff like this pretty easy."

"I'd say death counts as lasting damage." Austin argued. She brushed his argument aside.

"The point is, the torture isn't for you. He hits you cuz he has to. He actually doesn't like physical torture much. He prefers psychological, and he can only go so far with you psychologically down here. Don't you get it? He didn't take you to torture you. He took you to torture your friends."

Austin felt like he'd been hit with a sack of potatoes- which really hurts, if you've never experienced it (it was one of the earlier tortures). Austin couldn't believe he hadn't seen it before. Emma was right. This wouldn't hurt him in the long run, that is, if he survived (because he still firmly believed that death counted as lasting damage). But what about Trish and Dez? What about Ally? Austin knew, from secondary experience, that there was nothing worse than losing someone you love. Nothing worse, other than a loved one disappearing, and not knowing what happened to them.

It was never about Austin.

He could feel the tears of anger and frustration leaking down his face. He wanted to break out of chains and torture the damned soul until he understood the pain he'd been inflicting. He wanted to-

"Emma?"

She looked up, taking in his expression with wide eyes. Austin understood her reaction. A thought had just occurred to him- a very scary thought. "How does he know what reaction he's getting out of my friends? How can he watch them without them ever knowing?" Austin could hear his voice shaking. He didn't care. Weakness was just a thing down here. It didn't matter.

The look on Emma's face would've been funny, in any other situation. She was shocked. "OH" She said. "No one's ever asked THAT before." Austin found that hard to believe, but there was really no other explanation for the bewildered look on her face. "I don't know what he does when he's away. Maybe he's got a job as a spy or something?"

Austin just blinked. It didn't really matter what job he had. What did matter was that He was watching Austin friends. Torturing them mentally. He didn't even have to do anything anymore. All he had to do was watch. The psycho.

Austin turned a pleading look to Emma. "Isn't there anything you can do?"

She bowed her head again (she did that a lot), this time, in shame. "You know I can't." She nodded to his bindings. "I couldn't even untie you, even if I wanted to." Well, of course she couldn't. Austin was chained and locked to that chair. Only HE could untie him. And, perhaps, a police force.

In fact, Austin realised, there really wasn't anything she could do, other than talk to him. There was no phone in the basement, no computer, not a single digital thing that could be tracked or used to contact someone. The door had a deadlock on it, so there was no getting out. There weren't any windows either. And it's not like she could use the instruments to attack Him. The piano appeared to be bolted to the floor, and she didn't have the strength to swing the guitar hard enough to cause damage. That's why she wasn't tied up. She was literally powerless, and Austin was only just truly understanding that fact.

"I'm sorry." Austin felt the need to apologize. "I know if you could help, you would." And Austin meant it. He may not really know her, but she was sincere, and good, even with the atmosphere she'd grown up in. She had a strong will.

She smiled at him.

"Now, I wouldn't be so sure about that."

The two of them cringed.

HE had returned.


	7. Arrivals and letters

After what she'd experienced the last time she was on a plane, the airport was the last place she wanted to be, especially since she felt as if she was in a very fragile mental state. Thankfully, Ally wasn't getting on a plane. There wasn't a force in the world that would make her leave Toronto without Austin, anyways. But that didn't make her feel any better about being at the airport.

Because she was here to meet Austin's parents.

Ally had avoided calling Austin's parents for the first day, and after that… Well, Ally's ashamed to say that she lost track of time, even though it was taking all of her concentration not to sink into her earlier depression. Thankfully, it hadn't effected the timing of Austin's parents finding out what had happened. Apparently, Trish had insisted that the police call the Moons to formally inform them of the situation (Trish hadn't wanted to break the news either). It had taken the Moons time to find replacements to watch their mattress store, and then they'd taken the time to pack for a month. Ally was appalled by this. If Ally had been in their situation, she would've just shut down the store and taken the next plane out of Miami to Toronto. But they were here now, and Ally wasn't one to rebuke her elders.

Ally and Trish were sitting at a little café in the airport, waiting for them to arrive, hoping that they were waiting at the right spot. Neither of them spoke. The emails had hit them all hard. Ally was constantly pushing back tears, and her throat was hurting from the effort. She couldn't believe that Austin had thrown himself into an alligator pit (figuratively speaking) because of a few hollow threats. But no, that's not quite right. It was absolutely believable that Austin would give himself up for empty threats, even though he didn't realise they were hollow. She just really wished he hadn't.

Ally was shaken out of her reverie by Trish, who had waved her hand in front of Ally's face to get her attention. Ally raised her eyebrows at her friend. She just signalled with a glance to a spot behind Ally. She whirled around, desperately trying to put on a mildly pleased expression.

"Ally!" Mrs. Moon was the first to reach the group, and proceeded immediately to pull Ally into a tight hug. Ally hugged her back, the battle against her tears raging within. Ally's mom was basically never around, owing to her research in Africa, and Mrs. Moon had taken on a bit of a motherly role in Ally's life.

"Ally, Trish." Mr. Moon greeted the pair, putting a hand on Trish's shoulder as Mrs. Moon pulled away from Ally. "We are so sorry it took so long to get here. We wanted to be here the second we heard, but we were just so swamped…"

"It's okay, Mr. Moon." Ally interrupted. She could hardly blame them for anything after that spiel, especially since her own father couldn't come out at all because of those exact reasons. "We understand."

"We understand that Austin's… situation" Mrs. Moon choked on the word. "Has been going on for a little longer than we thought?"

Ally had a response ready. She'd even rehearsed it on the way to the airport. But she found that imagining a situation, than actually being in it, was two very different things, and her whole speech got stuck in her throat.

Trish noticed Ally's hesitation, and quickly covered for her. "Yeah." She said. "He'd been receiving some emails… well, I think it would be better if you read them yourselves." Trish pulled out a copy of the transcript from her purse and handed to her. Ally noted dryly that Trish could pull as many things out of her purse as Dez could pull out of his backpack.

The two girls watched quietly as the Moons read the emails. Their faces grew darker and darker as they reached the bottom of the page. When they reached the bottom, Mrs. Moon visibly choked on a sob, putting a hand on her mouth to avoid anything else from escaping. Mr. Moon reacted a bit differently. He crumpled the sheet of paper in his hand, a deadly look on his face. No sobs or tears escaped him. Ally knew that boys tended to react differently than girls in stressful situations, but she'd never actually seen that theory in practice before, until now.

Mr. Moon put a comforting hand on his wife's shaking shoulder. "Now, now Mimi, look at it this way. Remember all those crime shows we used to watch? You know what it means when a victim is staked out like this in advance." The woman quieted her shaking and looked up at her husband with a glimmer of hope. The teenagers simply looked confused. Mr. Moon clarified. "It means there's a very good chance he's still alive." He said, addressing the two girls.

Trish's face froze, and Ally's body made a weird jerky movement. Still alive. Certainly, they'd all been thinking about the alternate possibility… But it wasn't until that moment that someone had openly addressed the topic, and it was having a strange effect on Ally.

Because Austin couldn't be dead. He just couldn't be. Barring the fact that that she'd be losing her closest friend, her career, and basically her life, it would be HER fault. And she just couldn't take that. Finding Austin wasn't a moral issue anymore. Finding him, and finding him alive, was her responsibility. A new resolve flooded her, and finally, Ally felt like she had a purpose. She found that for the first time since Austin vanished, she wasn't fighting back tears.

"The police want to speak with you." Ally said. She could hear the change that just happened within her echoing through her voice, and it didn't surpass Trish. Her friend looked up, shocked, and Ally could tell that she was pleased that she'd finally manage to drag herself out of her funk. The Moons simply nodded, and Ally led the way out of the airport. They hailed a taxi, and soon, they were packed in a cab, on their way to what had now become their base of operations.

"There's a few things that get me." Mrs. Moon said. "For one, what was the package that was refered to in the second email? I figure that it must be something that got Austin to take him seriously. Because our boy is smart. He should've known that those threats were hollow." Ally nodded, urging her to go on. "Secondly, how could he have been watching the four of you so closely without any of you noticing? You didn't happen to notice any stranger hanging around the store a bit too much? Asking strange questions?" Ally shook her head. It did weird her out, but this had to be looked at logically.

"Austin's famous." Ally said. "He could've found out everything he needed to know to pull this off through magazines and articles, stuff you can find online. He didn't really have to be watching us."

Mrs. Moon nodded in apparent disagreement. "No" She said. "I get the sense that whatever it was that he sent to Austin, it must've been something that belonged to one of you three, something that would make Austin truly understand that he was nearby and watching. Also, he couldn't have found out anything about you without firsthand knowledge. You avoid the media whenever it appears. There's next to nothing about you in magazines and articles."

Ally frowned. What she said was true. Ally did avoid publicity, because of her stage fright. She made a point of not being there when a chance of being questioned arises. Her friends respect that, as well, and they talk as little as possible about her when they're interviewed. He had to have been watching her, at least, to know what he did about Ally personally. And that scared her. She didn't even want to think about her earlier statement. The thought of this guy actually being through their stuff, of getting that personal… No, she wouldn't go there.

Before Ally could respond, the taxi pulled up to the police station, and the four of them shot out of the car. Mr. Moon stayed back to pay the driver and grab the luggage. The other three rushed inside, ready to tell the detective everything they'd thought up on the ride there (that's assuming they hadn't already figured it all out themselves).

The group had barely made it five feet, however, when they found themselves face to face with the detective in question.

"Mrs. Moon, I presume?" He said, offering his hand. She shook it. "I'm glad you showed up when you did. There's been a development." Ally hopes soared when the words came out of his mouth, but she fought them back down, once she'd gotten a good look at his grave expression. Her hopes plummeted further when his attention turned to her.

"Ally Dawson." He said. "A letter came for you."

"A letter?" She asked, more confused than ever.

"It's safe." He said, though his expression seemed to suggest otherwise. "Follow me."

The group followed the detective into a back conference room silently, intrigued yet wary. Ally was simply downright confused. Until he handed the letter to her.

There was no name or address on the back, only two words:

Recognise This?

Ally hands were shaking as she reached into the envelope. She felt something soft touch her fingertips and her heart leaped into a throat. Taking a deep breath, she pulled out the object.

It was a lock of blonde hair.


	8. Suspicions and Ideas

**Hey guys!**

**Sorry it took so long to post this. We just finished installing our pool! It's so exciting, and to be honest, it's very hard to write a story like this when you're feeling so upbeat and happy. **

**Just to clear things up, Austin and Ally are both 16 years old in this story (so are Trish and Dez, for that matter). And it has actually only been a few days since Austin was taken. **

**Anyways, hope you like it. I'll try to get a new chapter posted as soon as possible, which hopefully will be tomorrow.**

"You don't know its Austin's"

Ally could feel her best friend's hand on her arm, hear the words she was saying, but she didn't process any of it. Her whole world narrowed down to these few strands of hair in her hand. And boy, did she know they were Austin's. She remembered it so well.

'_Ally was screaming and clapping with the crowd, completely oblivious to the attention she may or may not be drawing to herself. All she saw was Austin. This was his moment, his first ever real concert, and he absolutely shone. He was still shining when he got off the stage and pulled her into a hug, his adorable little-boy grin ever present. _

"_You were amazing out there." Ally complimented, as he put her down, stepping away from the hug. _

"_Thanks." He said with a smile, tilting his head down in an almost nervous way. It wasn't often that Ally saw the top of his head, with her being so much shorter than him, and with them standing so close, she saw something there, something you never noticed before… _

"_You have exactly one strand of brown hair" She informed him. Without really realising what she was doing, she reached out and twirled that one strand of brown hair. Both of them quickly realised what was happening, and the two jumped apart. Ally hid her hand behind her back. _

_Austin broke the awkward silence. "I'll take that as a compliment." He smiled. She smiled. They were back in familiar territory.' _

And the psycho had cut it off. Austin's single strand of brown hair was now in her hand. He must've known that it would bring back a certain memory. But how could he have known about that? No one had been around. Well, except for Trish and Dez, but Ally was pretty sure the moment hadn't meant as much to them as it had to Ally.

Surely… Surely Austin hadn't told him. It didn't seem like the sort of thing that would pop to mind in a life-threatening situation. Ally would've been surprised if Austin even remembered the moment, much less thought something of it. It hadn't been their first awkward moment together, and it certainly hadn't been the last. Still, Ally preferred to think that he had gotten the memory from Austin. Because the alternative was that he had actually seen what had happened… And, well, that was just scary.

Ally sighed, twirling the hair like she had so long ago. "It's Austin's." She said.

"But Austin doesn't have any brown in his hair." Trish said, trying to reason with Ally, to comfort her, even though she was really trying to reassure herself.

"Yes he does. Or he did." There was such a strong certainty in Ally's voice that Trish didn't even bother to argue. There was no point, not when Ally had made up her mind. Trish always figured that this was because it took her so long to make up her mind, so she had to make sure she would never go back on a decision. And Ally had decided that the hair belonged to Austin.

The detective started talking again, expressing his disgust and proceeding to informing the Moons of everything the police knew of what had happened to Austin and everything they guessed. Ally didn't hear a word of it.

After everything she'd been feeling over the last few days, Ally expected nothing more than a hysterical breakdown at the sight of Austin's hair. But it didn't come. In fact, Ally didn't feel any sort of sadness. Maybe her deep depression from the past hours had drained her of the ability to process sadness anymore. No, Ally wasn't upset.

She was angry.

That moment had been private- regardless of how anyone else had felt about it. Not that it hadn't been obvious before that he had intruded on their personal lives, but the one strand of brown hair finally drove home the fact that what she thought had been her own private moments had in fact been shared with some psychopath. And if there was one thing Ally valued above all else, it was her privacy. How many times had she had to warn people away from her journal? For all she knew, he had read her journal, and was getting everything about her from its pages. Maybe he was a she. They knew nothing about this person, and he knew everything about them. It was sickening. It was wrong. And it was infuriating.

Ally was startled to find that she was shaking from her anger, and she put down the letter and the hair on the conference table so as not to drop them on the floor. It was extremely rare for her to get this angry. She felt like screaming. She felt like tipping over every chair in this godforsaken room. Above all else, she wanted to rip the person who took Austin Limb. From. Limb. This had escalated beyond anything she'd ever felt before- not that that was a surprise. She'd never been in this sort of situation before.

Ally had been completely absorbed by her rage and hadn't heard a word of the conversation taking place around her, but when the detective mentioned the letter again with some connection to the police force, her head shot up, her eyes widening. "What did you say?" She asked. Her anger was obvious in her voice, and Ally knew it shocked the others. But her attention was entirely focused on the detective.

He repeated. "That letter shouldn't have been able to make it pass the security in this division of the office. Add that to the restrictions of this case in particular, we're looking at a nearly impossible situation with that letter."

"And?" Ally said, urging him on.

"And," he continued. "That means that the only way this letter could've reached you in this way is if someone from within had sneaked it past the security system."

It took Ally a moment to realise what he was saying. "Wait, are you saying that someone in the police department is helping this maniac?" Ally began to think that trashing the office wasn't such a bad idea after all.

"It looks like it." He said, his face grim. Trish gasped, and the sentiment was echoed by Mrs. Moon. Mr. Moon looked like Ally felt- like he wanted to tear something apart.

"We're conducting a thorough search of the police personel." Detective Mark said. "We've interviewed everyone in the communications division, but nothing has struck as suspicious behavior. We'll keep looking." The strength of his gaze intensified and he focused on Ally. "I probably don't need to tell you this, but finding the accomplice could be the key to finding Austin."

No, he hadn't needed to say that. They all knew. This letter, no matter how sick and wrong it was to send, may be the key to the maniac's downfall and Austin's rescue.

The group left quickly after that. There wasn't much else to say, and sticking around would only slow down the whole process. The group hailed another taxi, and they made their way to the hotel.

It took a bit of fighting, but they managed to get the Moons the room next to Austin and Dez's room. It wasn't adjoining like the rooms they already had, but it was the absolute best they could get. The group hauled the luggage upstairs. Trish took the opportunity to talk to Ally.

"Okay, what's up with you?" Trish said, her voice as quiet as she could make it, which, for Trish, wasn't very quiet. "I thought the hair thing would make you sad, but you look like you want to throw something instead." Ally noted that Trish didn't seem particularly upset by this.

A smile crept onto her face. Some distant part of her brain knew that there was nothing funny about this situation, but she couldn't help it. She wasn't exactly thinking straight. "The maniac's intruding on our lives. And I think he might have even touched my book." Ally glared at Trish, making sure she FULLY understood Ally's point. "NO ONE touches my book. He's gonna pay." Ally had never known such dark emotions, and some twisted part of her kind of like it.

Clearly, Trish liked it too. Then again, she was naturally aggressive, and loved every second that Ally felt angry. "He shouldn't have done that." Trish agreed, the traces of a smile forming on her lips. "Are we calling this psycho the maniac now? Because we need to call him something. I'm getting tired of thinking up different things to call him."

"I guess so." Ally said. "It's weird, every time I hear the word maniac, I always think of Tilly Thompson."

"Ah, Tilly Thompson." Trish said, sighing dramatically. "That was one hateful girl, and you know that means a lot, coming from me. I wouldn't have put anything past her…" Trish's voice trailed off, and shock crossed her features. Ally knew what was bothering her. The same thought had crossed her mind, at the same time.

"You don't think… I mean, she's a master of disguise… and she's got that grudge on us, after Austin showed her up…" Trish said, still trying to process the thought.

"The police already interrogated her. She has an alibi." Trish looked a little put out by this. It would've been nice to have solved the mystery just like that. But still, something else occurred to Ally. Maybe something more was going on here. Something far more insidious than they thought.

"But…" Ally continued, as the two entered their room. Trish looked up, intrigued. Ally pulled out her phone and waved it at her friend. "There's no harm in talking to her, right?"


	9. Cab rides and Accusations

**Hello again! **

**So sorry I didn't get this up yesterday. It ended up being a longer chapter than I expected it to be, but I hope it will satisfy your needs. **

**This chapter is from Trish's point of view, because Ally has kind of temporarily gone crazy with anger, and so I figured Trish would be more coherent. **

If Trish didn't know better, she would've thought her friend had been abducted and replaced by an alien- or maybe even a zalien.

Trish had been Ally's best friend since they were four, and in the same kindergarten class. And in all that time, not once had she ever known Ally to become so possessed by a single emotion, much less for her to act on it.

Ally had indeed called Tilly Thompson. The conversation had been brief, and Tilly had done most of the talking, so Trish hadn't caught most of what had been said. From what she understood, Tilly was as nuts as ever, and just as hateful. She'd practically told Ally that if she was going to accuse her of something as awful as Austin's kidnapping, to do it to her face. So, that was exactly what the two girls planned to do.

Trish may have been Austin's manager, but when it came down to it, she wasn't a very good planner. Ally, however, could be an amazing planner when she wanted to be, so Trish let her do her whole planning thing while she sat with the Moons, preferring their presence over that of Dez, especially while he's in his state of hysteria. Trish quickly found out, however, that the Moons were about as horrible as Dez when it came to keeping company.

Not that she blamed them- their son was missing, after all, and they had their own rights to a certain amount of hysteria. Dez had long surpassed his rightful limit of hysteria, but he was prone to drama. Add that to the fact that he never matured past the age of two, and, well… You get the picture.

Still, Trish felt like they should be showing a little more enthusiasm over their plan to talk to Tillie. Sure, it wasn't much of a plan, and there wasn't much chance of it leading anywhere, but it made her feel like she was doing something productive, something that can help get Austin back. Huh, look at that. Trish has finally become a productive member of society. Who would've guessed?

Actually, Trish really believed that Tillie knew something. She was pretty sure that she hadn't taken Austin, mainly because she was TOO crazy to pull it off, and get away with it. But, Trish knew very well that Tilly had been watching them like a hawk since the butterfly song incident. If anyone had noticed someone stalking the group, it would be someone else stalking the group. It didn't matter that she didn't do it. What mattered was that she might know who did.

Trish and Ally had considered taking this to the police, like a normal person would. It would have definitely made talking to her easier. They were lucky enough that she was nearby- visiting a relative in some town called Cambridge. But, with the possible infiltration in the police ranks (hah, it's like a movie) the two agreed that they would have to keep this to themselves, at least until they had more evidence.

Ally finally managed to finish the plan, and she gave Trish a brief recap. "We're going to need to be quick." Ally said. "We need some information, and we need it now. It's best if we manage to get something before detective Mark goes to bed." Ally glanced at the clock, and Trish followed her gaze, surprised to find that it was getting late. Trish hadn't thought it would matter. She always thought that detectives were the sort of people who never slept when there was a job to be done. Then again, Trish always slept when there was a job to be done. Sometimes she only slept when there was a job to be done. So she couldn't really accuse anyone of anything.

"You do your thing." Ally continued. Trish felt an evil grin cross her face, the kind of smile that made Dez lose his freckles and run in the opposite direction. Trish liked doing her thing. "You scare her, and I'll ask questions. She's terrible at keeping secrets, even if she does hate admitting things." A smile tugged at the edge of Ally's lips, but like every other smile that had crossed her face in the past few days, it was completely humourless. Trish was pretty sure her smiles all had the same feel, but it was weird seeing it on Ally. It usually takes so much to make her smile- she never fakes it. And she definitely doesn't smile when there's nothing to laugh about.

Then again, they'd all changed to a certain extent. Austin made all the difference.

"Well, we better get going then." Trish said, standing up. Ally followed suit.

"The cab should be here in a few minutes." Ally said. Trish didn't respond. Taking a cab was the fastest option, since a bussing route would take forever, and neither of them could drive without a fully licensed driver in the vehicle (and no, thy most certainly would NOT be bringing the Moons with them). But taxis cost a lot, and it took some extra cash to convince this particular company to take them so far from the city. And Trish knew exactly who would be paying for this trip. Here's a hint- it wouldn't be Ally.

Of course, what with all the jobs she'd gone through, Trish was anything but short of money. Still… It'd be nice if all her friends didn't expect her to take care of everything all the time. Even if it was in the job description.

The cab finally showed up at the door, and the two girls got in. Trish expected some roughed up dude that wouldn't be happy about the long drive ahead, but instead, the driver was a nice lady that seemed to be in her mid-thirties. Well, at least she didn't have to worry about being hunted down by a cab driver for making a ridiculous request.

Ally stayed silent the whole ride, and Trish followed her lead. She was tempted more than once to strike up some sort of conversation, but she was worried about making Ally angry, which, if you wanted to know, NEVER happens. Even when Ally got angry, she wasn't really angry. But not now.

Trish hoped for a second that Tilly wouldn't hold anything back, in the case she knew something. Trish could only imagine what Ally would do to the girl if she tried. The thing is, if she was forthcoming, it wouldn't be any fun for Trish.

So the long ride happened in total silence, other than the radio playing. Both girls winced whenever one of Austin's songs came on, but other than that, neither girl moved, until they approached their destination, and Ally set up a microphone that she would hide in her pocket. It was an absolutely brilliant idea, so of course, it was Trish who had come up with it.

They finally arrived at Tilly's current house, and the cab slowed to a stop. The location to meet Tilly had been a bit of an issue. Meeting in a public place would have made sure that nobody tried anything drastic, but meeting privately meant that if Tilly did say something, no one else would overhear. Tilly had decided on a private meeting, which Trish took as a good sign. Of course, Tilly knew nothing of the microphone Ally had wired. Silly girl.

They got out of the cab and set up a meeting time with the driver, since the deal they made with the company meant being driven both ways. Trish said a polite goodbye to the cab driver and turned to her friend.

"You ready for this?" Trish asked.

A diabolical smile crossed her face. "Oh, yeah." She answered. And together, the girls approached the door, and rang the doorbell.

It was a stroke of luck that it was Tilly who answered the door. Trish hadn't really wanted to explain to Tilly's relatives who they were and why they were here. Still, Trish could've done without the look of disdain the girl aimed at her, and the look of pure hatred she aimed at Ally. "Oh, its you." She said. She looked as though she was considering not letting them in for a moment, but it passed, and she opened the door wider. "I guess you should come in?"

Trish waltzed right in, Ally right behind her. She always found Tilly's insanity to be a little funny, no matter what the situation. She was working on keeping a smile of her face, which wasn't too hard, so long as she focused on Austin. Ally, meanwhile, looked like she was working hard to stay calm and collected.

"Is there someplace private we can talk?" Ally said. The group could hear the sounds of a family coming from some place down the hall.

Tilly didn't exactly answer, but instead made a big show of flipping her hair over her shoulder and walking away. Amused, Trish followed. So did Ally.

She brought them to a room that was without a doubt the one she had christened her own. They were various pictures on the walls (one of them of their group) with darts in them. There was torn paper everywhere, and her clothes were scattered across the floor. It looked like she'd recently had a fit.

It took them a few minutes, but all three girls finally managed to find a seat in the wreckage of the room. Tilly quickly found that she didn't like looking someone straight in the eye, so instead stood up to talk to them. She looked like she was about to say something, but Ally jumped in before she could.

"What do you know about the person who kidnapped Austin?" She said, clearly trying hard to keep her voice calm.

Tilly seemed momentarily shocked, but quickly recovered, and feigned surprise. "You mean that backstabbing, good-for-nothing, lying dirtbag who kidnapped Austin 2 days and 22 hours ago?" She considered this for a moment. "I know nothing." She tried to head for the door.

Trish jumped up. This was too good. There was no way she was backing out now. She grabbed her arm. "You realise you just admitted that you know who did this, right?" menace was thick in every word.

Tilly nearly swore. "I HATE it when I admit things! I hate it! I hate it! I-"

"We know!" Trish yelled, stopping the crazy girl mid-sentence. Tilly glared. Trish glared back, with a gaze that she knew was ten times more powerful than anything Tilly could've managed, even if she was the shorter of the two. "Now I suggest you tell us what you know, before you're in even more trouble than you already are."

Tilly had the appearance of an animal back into a corner. Her gaze flickered back and forth between Trish and Ally, who had stood up as well with barely controlled rage. Trish could almost see the inner battle going on behind her eyes.

"Why should I tell you anything?" Tilly finally said, trying to put all sorts of false arrogance into her voice.

Trish just smiled. She had a lot more anger management experience than her raging friend. "If you don't, then you're gonna find out exactly what Ally can do when she's angry. And not even I know what that is. So I suggest you talk now before things get ugly."

Tilly took her gaze of Trish to glance at Ally. She didn't even have to fake the look of pure outrage, Trish realised. She was just that angry with Tilly right now. Tilly seemed to realise this too, and she knew as well as anyone who knew Ally that Ally Dawson didn't get angry. And Tilly Thompson was scared.

"Fine." She said, trying to sneer. "There was this guy who came to me a while ago. He said he could ruin Austin and Ally, and that he could do it in a way that no one would notice. All he needed, he said, was a few secrets on team Austin. I could give them to him, easy." Her smile was demonic, and Trish had to hold Ally back with a hand on her shoulder. "He said he'd pay me. I gave him what he wanted. But now we're a week past payday, and he hasn't given me a cent!" Tilly's little hands balled into fists. "That backstabbing, lying, good-for-nothing-"

Tilly never finished the sentiment, because at that moment, Ally finally snapped. She pushed past Trish, grabbed Tilly by the shirt, and threw her first ever punch. Trish would've been so proud, if the situation didn't horrify her so much.

"You stupid,"

_Punch _

"immature,"

_Punch _

"Insane girl!"

_Punch_-

"Ally!"

Trish finally decided to intervene. She grabbed her friend and pulled her away from Tilly, who was too shocked to even react to the attack. "Let me handle this." Trish whispered to her friend. Before she could see Ally's reaction, she turned to the lunatic and grabbed her by the shirt, exactly where Ally had.

"WHO WAS IT?" Trish yelled. Some distant part of her realised she was probably being even more aggressive than Ally, but she didn't really care.

Tilly shook her head, terrified. "I don't know…"

Trish couldn't believe her ears. "GUY, GIRL, NAME, ADDRESS! TELL ME!" She had to know something, right?

Tilly whimpered. "It- it was a guy. An older guy- thirty, maybe? He didn't give me details…"

Trish groaned. How could this stupid lunatic think she would get paid if she didn't even know who would be paying her?

"It doesn't matter." Trish said, her voice quivering a little, despite her awesome anger management. "We're taking you to the Toronto police. You're gonna tell them everything you just told us." Trish grabbed the girl's arm and tugged, but she didn't move.

"But I didn't know he was going to kidnap Austin! Besides, it won't do you any good." Tilly said. She sounded far too confident for Trish's liking, even if it did kind of sound like she was playing her last card.

"What do you mean?" Ally asked in a low voice.

"I mean the guy. He had a uniform. He was a policeman. From Toronto- it said so on his badge."

Ally and Trish exchanged mortified expressions. The maniac couldn't be a policeman. He just couldn't be. The others in the department would know, right?

Except, he did manage to get the letter past security… And the police hadn't discovered who had let it in… But they hadn't interrogated the police force, only those in communications.

Trish knew that Ally had realised it at the same time as she had. The girl gave her a dangerous look, and her gaze shifted to Tilly. Ally wanted desperately to turn Tilly in. But she was a lunatic, and no one would believe her, even though she had a knack for telling the truth, especially when she was trying to hide it. So Tilly would remain the only person who could identify this part-time-police-man-full-time-maniac. They needed her.

"You're coming with us." It sounded as if it pained Ally to say it. Trish knew that it pained her to hear it.

"But you can't turn me in-"

"We aren't turning you in." Trish said, sighing in defeat. What was the world coming to?

"Than what do you need me for?"

"You're going to show us who you made your deal with."


	10. Plans and Songs

**Hey guys! **

**Okay, so I figured that with such an awesome last chapter from Trish and Ally's side of the story, it was time for an equally awesome chapter from Austin's side of the story! So here it is!**

**This chappie has a song in it. You can find it on youtube. It's called Courage Is and it's by The Strange Familiar. Note: I do not own the song, even though its technically written by a character in the story. **

One would figure that when another person stopped beating you to the brink of death every day, it was a good thing, right?

Wrong.

Austin would've taken the beatings back in a heartbeat. He was a guy, after all. He could take a hit. He didn't even mind, so long as his friends were all right. And really, Austin would have preferred fewer beatings as well if it also meant his friends were still all right. The thing is, that's not really how He works.

Once He had overhead Emma giving Austin the details of the real reason he'd been taken, He no longer saw any reason to really keep up the whole beat-up-Austin-to-near-death thing. Not that the beatings stopped all together. Austin was pretty sure He still found beating people up to be a fun sport. It didn't even faze the young rock star, however. Because when He was busy hurting Austin, He wasn't talking. And Austin dreaded every word that came out of His mouth.

He didn't insult Austin, not exactly. It's not like Austin would ever take any criticism from this guy seriously, in any case, and they all knew it. What he did was far worse, at least, to Austin.

It had started with the hair he chopped off. That was enraging for a few reasons. For one, it completely messed with his hairdo. Didn't this guy have any idea how long it took to find the perfect hairstyle to complement the rest of the face? And how long it took to reach that perfect style every morning? Chopping off a chunk of hair was just plain cruel.

But more importantly, he took Austin's brown hair. Austin had spent most of his life embarrassed about the little mutation. A Guy with hair as blonde as Austin's shouldn't have any brown. It was just weird. Or at least, Austin had thought so, until Ally made him see it differently. He would never forget the moment when his friend reached up and twirled that strand of hair with her finger, an enraptured look on her face. It was just a tiny moment in time, but it changed a part of Austin in ways he still didn't really understand. And the maniac had CHOPPED IT OFF.

Of course, that memory was probably the reason he took it in the first place. He did it to get to Ally. That's the thing. Everything he was doing was meant to get to his friends- to get to Ally.

Once the hair had come off, the words had come. And Austin would give anything for them to stop.

It was one thing to guess that He was going to try and hurt his friends. It was an altogether different thing for Him to explain exactly what he was going to do, in excruciating detail. It wasn't even threatening. He said it as if he were casually talking about what He was going to do at school that day (even though he's way too old to go to school). Normal people might find this not so horrible. But not Austin. He lived for his friends- and now he had to watch as his friends were slowly being torn to pieces.

His plan was complex, and Austin couldn't keep track of it at all. The only thing he could ever be sure of was what the next step would be. And what He had in mind- well, it was sickening, to say the least. It was going to happen in no less than a few hours, and Austin was trying really hard not to think about it.

"You look constipated."

Austin turned to Emma at her weak attempt at a joke. He tried to smile, for her sake, but she didn't buy it. The rare trace of humour vanished from her face, replaced by the bitter and sad one she'd been wearing since things had changed. "He's horrible." She said. "I'm sorry. I should do something…"

Austin sighed. He wished, more than anything, that there was something she could do. They both knew better, even if neither of them wanted to say it out loud anymore. "Don't be sorry." Austin said, not being able to come up with anything else to say.

Her eyes got that faraway look they often did when she was looking into her past. A past that was still shrouded in mystery, Austin should say. She'd grilled him about his life details, and had even taken to making notes on a little notepad she kept on her at all times. But she never gave anything away about herself, or how she ended up in this hell hole.

"Just don't think about it." She said, after a minute of silence. Austin didn't have to asked what she was referring to. They were back on His Plan. "If you don't think about it, maybe it'll go away…" Her voice trailed off, and she quickly looked away.

Austin raised his eyebrows at her. He didn't really know the proper way to respond to something like that. Austin wondered for a moment if she'd been talking to herself more than to him. It wouldn't be the first time.

"I need a distraction." Austin said, pulling Emma out of her thoughts. She looked up at him with a question mark written all over her face.

"Do you want to talk some more?"

This did make Austin smile. Unless she was willing to open up about her history, there wasn't much left to talk about. "No." He said, smile fading. "That will just make me think of Ally…" Austin looked down, trying to fight off the images that were filling his head. A part of him felt guilty, thinking that he should be feeling this awful for his other friends as well. And when he certainly was hurting for his other friends too, they weren't quite in the same category as Ally. He loved Trish and Dez, but he NEEDED Ally. It was hard to explain.

"What else, then?" Emma inquired, pulling Austin back to reality.

Austin considered this for a moment. Then, inspiration hit.

"Can you play those?" Austin said, indicating the guitar and the piano.

Emma scoffed, showing just how ridiculous the question was. "Of course I can. Why else would they be down here?"

Oh good, she was coherent again. Austin was getting excited. He would die to hear a bit of music. "Can you play a song for me?" He asked. He heard the wonderful sound of hope in his voice.

Emma bowed her head, almost… embarrassed. "You wouldn't like my music." She said.

"Why not?"

"You like fun songs." She explained. "My songs are all slow, and a little sad."

It doesn't matter AUSTIN NEEDS MUSIC. "That's okay. I'll listen to anything right now." He said, ever so truthful. Music was music. Austin didn't care, so long as she didn't scream.

She tilted her head at him, considering the request. Austin loved it when she did that. It reminded him of Ally.

"Okay." The Albino finally responded. Austin was only just able to contain his happiness. Good emotions were so rare down in that basement, that every time one came along, it was that much more wonderful.

The Albino walked over to the piano and sat down. She took out her notebook, flipping back many pages until she found what she was looking for. She must write her own songs, Austin realised. Of course she does. How else would she know any songs? She sat the notebook in front of her, and moved her fingers across the keys, with a grace Austin hadn't known was even possible. She sang.

_Take all my vicious words_

_And turn them into something good_

_Take all my preconceptions_

_And let the truth be understood_

_Take all my prized possessions_

_Leave only what I need_

_Take all my pieces of doubt_

_And let me be what's underneath_

Austin was enraptured. Her voice was perfect, almost enchanting. But it was more than that. She sang from her heart. She really meant what she was singing.

_Courage is when you're afraid, _

_But you keep on moving anyway_

_Courage is when you're in pain, _

_But you keep on living anyway_

Had she picked this song for him intentionally? Austin didn't know, but he found himself listening to ever word and clinging to their meaning like a lifeline.

_We all have excuses why_

_Living in fear something in us dies_

_Like a bird with broken wings_

_It's not how high he flies, _

_But the song he sings_

She was really into it now. Emotion rang in her voice as she made her way back into the chorus. She could have moved an entire crowd to tears, if there had been a crowd.

_Courage is when you're afraid, _

_But you keep on moving anyway_

_Courage is when you're in pain, _

_But you keep on living anyway, _

_You keep on living anyway_

_It's not how many times you've been knocked down_

_It's how many times you get back up_

Emma looked over her shoulder and gave Austin a look filled with so much meaning, he couldn't process what she was trying to tell him exactly. However, one thing was clear to him. She had picked this song intentionally, and she was singing it to him and him alone.

_Courage is when you've lost your way, _

_But you find your strength anyway_

_Courage is when you're afraid_

_Courage is when it all seems grey_

_Courage is when you make a change, _

_And you keep on living anyway_

_You keep on moving anyway_

_You keep on giving anyway_

_You keep on loving anyway_

Her hands drifted to the last key, and room was suddenly filled with silence. But Austin didn't notice. He was thinking.

Austin had always thought his songs were inspirational. They were, to some people, to an extent. But he had never realised that there were songs that could dig this deep into the soul and make a person doubt everything. Granted, his current situation might be making the song seem a lot stronger. Still, he found himself thinking on the song, on what courage really meant to him. Had he shown courage here? It had never crossed his mind. Was he brave to give himself up? Or had it been stupid? As time went on, he was starting to think it had been just plain idiotic… But he hadn't even tried. He'd gone down without a fight. And now he was just sitting here (bound, mind you) doing nothing. He didn't even try to fight. He had thought it had been for his friends. But cooperating did nothing for them anymore. Austin had no more reason to sit quietly.

"Thank you." Austin said. "I think I needed that."

She gave him a small smile, taking in his expression. "Have you thought of something?"

He had, actually. Austin was done playing victim- metaphorically, anyways. He hadn't paid very close attention when he'd been taken to this place, but he did know a few things about their location, like, how far from Toronto they were, and which direction they had gone. If there was a way to get that message to his friends…

"Yes." He said. Austin was starting to feel like an evil mastermind. "We're going to use His master plan against him. And I'm going to need your notebook…"


	11. Cameras and Video calls

**Okay, before anyone says anything about how this next chapter is a little far-fetched, I want you to know that the idea comes straight from an episode of criminal minds, and it is absolutely possible! **

**I'll have the next chapter posted soon, I promise! All will be revealed!**

Ally had never considered herself to be a violent person. In fact, she often prided herself over her ability to control her emotions. But, just like everything else, Austin's disappearance had changed that. And she was appalled.

It's not like Tilly Thompson didn't deserve the few hits Ally had managed before her friends stopped her, but if anything, it should have happened the other way around. It should have been TRISH doing the punching, and ALLY should've been the one to stop her. But that's not how it happened, and Ally was ashamed. Not of hitting Tilly, like she said, she'd deserved it. She was ashamed of losing control.

So it was in an awkward silence that the three girls left to catch their cab. It had taken a lot of glossing over- and a few reassurances- to finally get Tilly permission to leave from her relatives. Apparently, she was supposed to be under careful mental supervision. It was about time someone addressed the issue of the girl's mental stability. If she didn't need Tilly, Ally would have insisted the girl be admitted in a mental hospital.

Finally, the trio found themselves in the cab and on their way back to Toronto. The cab driver, sensing the tension in the group, didn't make any attempts at conversation, and the trip was silent. Tilly sat by a window, her arms crossed and a pout on her face, glaring ahead at nothing. Trish sat next to her, trying not to touch her, squirming uncomfortably in the silence. Ally, on the other hand, appreciated the quiet. It gave her a reason to simply stare out the window, massaging her hands from her earlier violence. No one had ever mentioned to her that hitting someone hurt. All the more reason why it shouldn't be done, Ally reasoned.

The trip seemed to take a lot longer going back than it had on the way, which was strange, because for Ally, it was usually the other way around. The minutes ticked by slowly, and Ally caught herself counting down the seconds a few times, which definitely didn't make the time go by any faster.

Eventually, though, the group did find themselves back in Toronto. The sun had set, and the city gleamed with various lights, people darting back and forth through the streets as they would anytime during the day. Ally found the crowd comforting. She hated it when fans recognised her; it put her in the spotlight.

The cab pulled up to their hotel, and the three girls stiffly got out of the car, relieved to finally stretch their legs. Trish generously paid the driver. And the old lady gave a very nice farewell before driving off.

Ally and Trish had considered, briefly, taking Tilly directly to the police station to identify the maniac. But, as mentioned earlier, she wasn't considered to be a viable source of information, and ousting this creep in public like that, among his own people for that matter, would do nothing to help Austin. So instead, they decided to bring Tilly to their hotel and hatch a plan from there.

The girls practically dragged Tilly back to the room, the girl cursing and stumbling the whole way. As soon as they had stopped in front of the door, she yanked her arm out of Trish's hand, scowling. At least she didn't try to run for it. It seemed her anger over being cheated would overshadow her hatred of team Austin. Hopefully, it would stay that way.

Upon entering the room, they came across a sight that was so normal and yet seemed so out of place with the situation: The Moons and Dez were playing cards. They stopped once the girls entered the room, looking up, eyes widening in shock. Only Dez had actually met Tilly before, but the Moons knew all about her from the butterfly song incident.

Trish gave a quick explanation to the others as to why they'd brought Tilly to Toronto, saying that she had some information that might come in handy in the way of identifying the maniac. She certainly didn't tell them about Tilly's deal with him. Because if she did… Well, Ally's earlier reaction would seem warm and fuzzy by comparison.

Ally led Tilly across the room, and sat her down on a chair. She didn't bring any luggage with her, assuming they'd only need her for a day or so. Ally hadn't argued the matter, even though she had no idea how long Tilly would actually be there.

Trish managed to talk the Moons into leaving the room. They didn't want them to hear the plan, just in case it backfired. If the kids were in trouble with authorities, at least the Moons would serve as a good contact for Austin's case. Technically, they should have been the main contact from the start, but detective Mark had judged Ally's relationship with Austin to be the strongest, and since their parents hadn't even joined them in Toronto… Well. That made Ally seem a little more responsible. Trish didn't get Dez to leave. They were going to need his video expertise. Ally hoped he'd be able to focus long enough to help.

"OK" Trish said, addressing Dez. "Here's what you need to know. Tilly knows who took Austin- but she doesn't know his name. What she does know is that he's a policeman from this area."

"That's terrible." Dez said, a frown on his face. "We should tell the police!"

The others gave him an 'are you serious?' look. "He is the police, you fool! We can't tell them anything!" Trish exclaimed. Ally couldn't help but smile. It was the closest they'd come to normality in a while.

Dez pouted. "Oh. Then what are we going to do?"

Ally exchanged a look with Trish, and took over the explanation. "We have a plan." Ally said. "Since we can't take Tilly to the police station to show us who we're dealing with, we'll film the staff of the station and bring the footage back to Tilly. Then, she can show us who the guy is who took Austin. The police won't ever know." Ally tried to smile encouragingly. It wasn't exactly an ideal plan. Of course it would look suspicious if Dez went to the police station and started filming every person there. But despite the gaps, this plan was the best they had. They had to take this chance.

Dez, apparently, didn't notice the faults in the plan. Either that, or he didn't care. "That's a great idea!" He said, jumping up. He gave a cocky smile and tossed his hair out of his face. "I suppose you need me to take the footage?"

"Yes, and don't be so cocky about it. Your head is big enough as it is." Trish told him, giving him a look that said she was very much NOT impressed with the hair toss. Again, Ally smiled at the small semblance of normal they seemed to have recovered. Maybe, once they got Austin back, everything really could go back to the way it was. Maybe.

Dez practically skipped in the air, and quickly rushed off to get his camera. Ally then turned to Tilly, who had sat quietly through the whole explanation, which was unusual for her. She wore her usual scowl, but it was edged with a little bit of nervousness. "Are you sure you'll be able to identify the culprit?" Ally said, keeping her voice level as she looked Tilly in the eye.

She tossed her hair. "Yes" She said, arrogance clear in her voice. "But I'm gonna get my money, right? Because if I don't-"

"You'll what?" Trish asked, putting on her menacing face. It was extraordinary how Trish managed to look down on the people she intimidated, considering most of them had a foot of height on her. "You won't help us? Well, listen here. The only reason we haven't turned you in is because you can help us. If you don't want to be useful, than fine. We'll just turn you over to the police and they can put you in the strait jacket that's been waiting for you since the day you were born." Trish had delivered her whole threat without a breath, getting closer to Tilly with every word, and the girl leaning back every time she got closer.

Ally had to bite her tongue to stop herself from smiling. Ladies and gentlemen, Trish was back!

Tilly looked about as shocked by Trish's threat as she had been from Ally's earlier violence (which Ally would now spend the rest of her life trying to forget). The shock quickly reverted to her earlier hatred, but she bit her tongue. Deep down, Ally was pretty sure that Trish's threat had scared the blondie, even if she would never admit it.

"Got it!" Dez bounded into the room, brandishing his camera, a goofy smile on his face. Trish sat back down in her chair, giving Dez a smile, as though they'd been talking about nothing more than the weather. Ally just shook her head. She was already looking forward to the minute they would no longer need Tilly.

Dez sat down, and an awkward (well, for three of them) silence rang in the air. The silence, however, was quickly broken by the sound of Ally's ring tone. She took out her phone, surprised, and answered.

"Hello?"

"Ally Dawson?" Ally didn't recognise the voice on the other end, but it sounded friendly, if not urgent. She confirmed. "This is the police station. We need you, the Moons, and the rest of your friends to come to the station, now. It's urgent."

"But why…" Ally started, confused. But she quickly realised that the explanation would come a lot faster if she left right away. "Okay. We're on our way." She said, and quickly hung up.

The others gave her a questioning look when she said they had to go to the police station, but they conceded right away. Trish got the Moons while Ally grabbed her purse. She quickly told Tilly "You need to stay here and stay quiet. Don't answer the door, don't pick up the phone, and don't leave the room. We'll be back soon" Ally made sure her tone of voice left no room for argument. Tilly conceded with an annoyed 'fine' and the group dashed out the door.

One quick cab ride later, Ally, Trish, Dez, and the Moons found themselves at the station- again. Ally made a mental not to make sure, when this whole thing was over, never to come back to this particular police station again. The group was hailed right away by a police officer they didn't know. He seemed young, and his face was pale, with beads of sweat on his brow. He abruptly introduced himself as officer Morgan, and brought them immediately to the back room, one that they hadn't been in yet. It looked like some sort of technical room, and it had several other men within.

"How was the connection established?"

"There's no way of tracing it, he keeps rerouting the signal…"

"Can we turn it off?"

The drabble of conversation dropped off when they took notice of the group at the door. One man, an older man, scoffed and said. "Are you sure we should've brought them in? They don't need to see this."

"Yes, they do." Another man answered. He seemed to be the one in charge. "As we've already discussed, he could pass along clues to them that he could not to an outsider. They need to see this."

Ally just stared on, clueless, as the conversation occurred, until finally, she managed to find her voice again. Ally noted wryly that despite being a sixteen year old girl, she seemed to be the appointed leader of her group. "What's going on?" She asked. "What do we need to see? And where is detective Mark?" Ally had only just noted his absence.

"Asleep." The person in charge answered her last question. "Follow me, please." The officer turned and led them to the back of the room. The monitors seemed to be set up in a way that would allow everyone to see the screen while still being in range of the little camera on the computer. Ally's heart did a nervous flutter. She'd been too pumped with adrenaline on her way there to think about what she would find awaiting her.

They all approached a particular screen, and another drabble of conversation popped up among the police. Ally didn't notice. She was staring at the screen, eyes wide, as her brain slowly processed the information her eyes were sending. A dark room, with nothing but a red light, and a chair, with a bruised and battered boy chained to it…

"Austin?" Ally gasped, her voice several octaves higher than usual. The drabble of conversation in the back quieted down.

The bruised and battered boy looked up to the camera, tried to smile, and quickly gave up.

"Hi, Ally."


	12. Threats and Messages

**Okay, I just wanted to say thank you so much for all your reviews, it's just so inspiring to know that people like my writing! **

**As promised, here's another chapter, posted as soon as I possibly could post it.**

**Enjoy!**

Ally didn't know how to respond. A part of her was immensely relieved to see Austin alive. Another part of her wanted to cry, knowing that he was trapped and in pain. The rest of her? Well, the rest of her was still confused. She never got the chance to respond, though, because as soon as he'd spoken, a dark, looming figure appeared in picture and smacked him across the face. She heard a small scream, and only later realised it was her who had screamed.

"Shut up." The figure barked at Austin. He complied.

Ally wanted to yell profanities at the figure, show him exactly what she thought of him. But she never got the chance, because she suddenly found herself being shoved to the side, by Austin's parents. Of course, this must be terrible for them, an onset of pointless suffering. Why would he do this? What did this guy get out of this?

"Oh, my baby, my boy!" Mimi Moon yelled at the monitor, face twisted in desperation. "Stay strong, honey! He can't keep hurting you…"

"I beg to differ." The rasping voice of the figure interrupted. "He will suffer. He will hurt. He shall know pain like none other. This is a warning to you, his friends and family. You won't ever find him. The harder you try, the more he suffers- and the more you suffer. Give up." With that, the figure- sorry, maniac- turned and punched Austin in the shoulder. It didn't look as though it would hurt too much, but Austin let out a cry of pain, and Ally realised he must have some broken bones. The maniac was hitting him in the same spots, over and over. Ally's face darkened. Hatred boiled in her blood, hatred she hadn't known she could feel. She clenched her hands into fists, and her world narrowed down to Austin and the maniac. Nothing else processed- nothing else mattered.

Even so, Ally wasn't the one showing the strongest reaction. Her feelings were internal, waging their war silently. The others reactions were a bit more… noticeable. Mimi Moon was choking on sobs, trying to hold them back for her son's sake but not quite managing. Mr. Moon was a picture of control, but the stormy look in his eyes and the scowl on his face suggested he wanted to do some horrible things to the maniac. Trish was crying again, something she hadn't done since Austin had first disappeared. As for Dez…

"You leave him alone!" Dez shouted at the monitor, voice filled with rage. It looked as though he wanted to attack the computer. Trish realised it at the same time Ally did, and she put a restraining hand on his arm. He didn't make a move to hurt the computer after that, no even when the maniac laughed at Dez's outburst. He simply glared at the screen, eyes wet and bloodshot.

He hit Austin again, and again, and each time Austin let out some sort of scream. He knew exactly where to hit Austin, exactly where it would hurt the most. What made the whole thing worse was that it was clear to Ally that Austin was actually trying really hard not to scream. She'd never witnessed something so horrible.

A distant part of her mind wondered why on earth the police had brought them to the screen in the first place, let alone why they were standing back and letting them watch the grizzly scene. They should be stopping this. They should drag them all out of there and cut off the connection, so why weren't they? Ally dredged up, with some difficulty, her memories of the conversation they were having before they'd been brought to the monitor. Of course, now she remembered. They thought that a close friend of Austin's might be able to pick up some clue, see some sort of message as to his whereabouts. The logic was sound. If Austin could get them some sort of message…

Ally stared at the screen, shocked. Austin must realise this. He must know that this was an amazing opportunity to get help. She caught Austin's eye for a moment, and tried to send him some sort of message. Come on, Austin, she thought. Tell us where you are…

Austin understood something from Ally's gaze, apparently, because at that moment, he gave a quick jerk of his head toward his left side, seemingly looking at something unseen. It was quick, and Ally was pretty sure no one else took notice. They did, however, notice when a little girl burst in the scene, from the left, where Austin had looked.

The girl was a flurry of white, and didn't hesitate whatsoever in attacking the maniac, but it was still quite obvious that she was terrified of him. She had good reason to be, Ally figured. She was very petite, and her small frame made her nothing more than an irritating fly against the tall, strong figure of the maniac. Still, she managed to distract him, enough so that his next hit went flying and got Austin right in the temple.

And that's when things got weird. The second the maniac realised he had hit Austin in the head, he halted in his onslaught of beating, stepping back and scowling. He shoved the girl away, and she went flying, to the point where she was no longer in the picture. Ally felt a little bit of pity for her. She seemed so fragile, and Ally wouldn't have been surprised if she now had a broken bone or two.

The maniac, still scowling, turned to the screen. He said nothing, and simply stormed toward the camera and turned it off. The monitor went black.

Ally was vaguely aware of her friends' despairing reactions, and of the police's murmurs. She didn't take notice. She was still trying to figure out what had just happened. Who was that girl? Why had the girl attacked? Did Austin get her to do it? If so, what was the point to it all? And why had the maniac stopped when he got Austin in the head? Ally was confused.

She didn't stay confused for long, however, because after about a minute of silence, the monitor was back on. What she saw made Ally jump several feet in the air.

The girl who had attacked the maniac had her face right up to the screen, as she fidgeted with the controls. Her white hair tumbled down her face, matching the paleness of her skin. But that wasn't what had scared Ally half to death.

It was her eyes, her ruby red eyes. This girl was an Albino.

Ally wasn't the only one to react to the image. Trish and Dez's intakes of breath were audible in the silence. The police all took a step back, as if she were emanating some sort of disease. But it was the Moons' reaction that was the strongest. Both adults suddenly went very pale. Mrs. Moon brought her hand up to her mouth in an effort to mask a whimper that had escaped. Their reaction was quite strange, actually. Ally made a note to ask them about it later.

The girl backed away from the screen, and retreated to Austin's form. The two seemed to be having an argument of sorts, both talking in whispers. Austin gave her a pointed look, and gazed down at the paper she was holding. She was biting her lip, clenching tight to the paper she didn't seem to want to give up. After a few more arguments, however, her anxiety seemed to lighten, and she loosened her grip on the paper.

Just then, the sounds of thundering footsteps came from the background of the image, and Austin and the girl both looked beyond the screen in alarm. The girl whimpered and hid behind Austin's chair, in an effort to hide. Austin got a hard look on his face, a look that almost seemed… protective.

Who the heck was this girl?

The footsteps from the backdrop came to a halt, and everyone in the room held their breath, waiting to see what would happen. A voice came from beyond the camera.

"I thought I turned this off…"

Ally gave a start of surprise. It wasn't the raspy voice from earlier, but it was definitely the same person, based on what was said. More importantly, though, there was something strangely familiar about the voice. She'd heard it before, Ally was certain. She just couldn't quite place it.

A flurry of movement from behind Austin's chair caught Ally's attention. The albino peaked her head above Austin's shoulder and, just as the camera from their end shook, as though someone was fiddling with it, she held up a piece of paper with a series of numbers and letters on it:

1HNW SB258

Then, the camera went black.

A flurry of conversation broke out among the police as they tried to decipher what had just happened. But Ally already knew what had happened. Just as the police had speculated, Austin had sent them a message, and Ally was going to decode it.

"I need a paper and a pen." Ally said, loud enough so that someone would hear her over the noise. It was Trish who complied. She ran off and was back in seconds with the items Ally had requested. She wrote down the sequence.

The police had been right on another note. To them, this message would make no sense at all. It could be a license plate number for all they knew. But to Ally, it was so much more. Last year, Austin had given Ally a calendar book to set dates for when they would practice their music. Ally had taken to writing abbreviations for all the times, which Austin found amusing. So amusing, in fact, that he insisted they come up with all sorts of random abbreviations for various times and places. It had gotten to the point where Ally didn't use full words in the calendar anymore, because she had an abbreviation for everything. So the sequence of letters and numbers that would make no sense to the police actually made perfect sense to Ally.

1HNW- 1 hour north-west

SB258- suburbs, house number 258

Ally laughed her first genuine laugh in what seemed like years.

Austin had told them where he was.


	13. Stories and Confessions

**Hey guys! So, now that the gang has a rough idea of where Austin is at, I figured we should probably go see what he's up to… and make sure he'll be there when the others start looking. **

**Also, you're all about to find out exactly who Emma is… I hope you're prepared! **

**Disclaimer: I haven't done this in a while, so just to be clear, I do not own Austin and Ally. But I do own Emma! In yur face, Disney!**

**Anyways, enjoy!**

Austin knew he had more broken bones. He probably also had a concussion, and maybe even some internal bleeding. But it didn't matter. Austin was happy. He'd gotten his message to Ally, and even more, had gotten away with the act. He owed it all to Emma, of course. Her timing was absolutely perfect. He couldn't have asked for someone better to pull off his plan with, even if she had been extremely nervous about it. Besides, anyone who takes a hit for Austin Moon deserves some credit. And now, it was all up to Ally to decode the message and rescue him. All he had to do was hold on until she came for him.

Although, that task was starting to seem just a little bit impossible. He hadn't eaten in days, and his stomach was constantly aching from the lack of food. He'd lost a lot of blood, too, which made the lack of food that much worse. His vision kept on blurring, and it was hard to focus on anything. Austin knew very well that he was slipping. Emma even confirmed that if he wasn't found soon, there would be nothing left for them to find. Tough love.

"Why Ally?"

Austin dragged his gaze up from the ground to meet the albino's gaze, surprised to find her right in front of him. She moved like a ghost sometimes, and it could get pretty creepy. He managed to focus long enough to find an answer.

"What do you mean?"

She frowned at him with that faraway look in her eyes that made her look slightly insane, as if she wasn't seeing what everyone else saw. "You always talk about Ally." She said. "You've got two other best friends and loving parents, yet your focus is always Ally. You're here because of Ally. Your life seems to be all about her. Even now, when you looked for someone to send a message to, it was Ally."

"Yeah" Austin said, an uneasy feeling in his chest. "So?"

"So here's my question." Emma said, finally looking at him full on. "Why haven't you told her how you feel about her?"

Austin blinked, shocked. She was right, of course. His focus had been Ally from the start. She was always there, acting as a calming presence in his mind. But that's the way it always had been. From the moment they first became music partners, Ally had become the center of his world. When she called, he came. He knew he'd always be there for her, no matter what the situation was. Ally meant the world to him.

But did that mean his feelings for her went beyond friendship? Was there really anything to confess? Austin had always known his feelings for Ally were stronger than those for his other friends, but he had always assumed it was because of their unique relationship as music partners. Now that he thought about it, though, it really was unusual. Friends cared for each other, Austin knew that much. But they don't make each other's world go round. They don't get the feeling that they're each other's reason for living. And friends most certainly did not relish every time they brush skin as if it were a gift from God.

Great God, why didn't he notice this before? He's as oblivious as a two year old.

I like Ally, Austin thought. And I think…

I think I might even love her.

Emma had watched on in amusement as Austin came to this realisation. She didn't need a spoken answer, Austin knew. She'd seen his face. She just knew.

But how?

"How?" Austin asked, giving Emma a skeptical look. "How did you know I felt that way about her? I didn't even know."

"I know you." She said. "You're a lot like me, and that makes you pretty easy to read." She looked down, suddenly finding the floor very interesting.

Austin smiled at her, but something lit up in the back of his brain, some answer to the puzzle that was Emma… um…

"What's your last name?" Austin asked. It suddenly occurred to him how strange it was that she could know everything about him, yet he didn't even know her full name.

"Nothing." She said. "Emma's not my real name." Austin could sense her anxiety rising, but this was too intriguing for him to let it go.

"Then why do you use it?"

A bitter smile crossed her face. "That's what He's always called me… Ever since he took me…" She was actually fidgeting now, her discomfort growing by the second. But Austin couldn't stop now. It seemed like he would finally be getting some answers on the history of the albino.

"What's your real name?" Austin asked, barely masking his perverse curiosity.

"Amelia" She still wasn't looking him in the eye.

"Amelia what?" When she didn't answer right away, he added. "Look, you know everything about me. You even know how I feel about Ally, and no one has ever figured that out before. At least tell me your full name."

Finally, she looked up. Her face was hard, seemingly from the memory of some past grievance, but it was underlined with determination. Austin realised, with a thrill, that she'd never told anyone this before.

"Moon" She said. Austin excitement began to turn to confusion. What sort of an answer was that?

Seeing his confusion, she added. "My full name. It's Amelia Moon."

It took Austin a few moments to realise what she had said. "Oh." He said, a smile creeping onto his face again. "We have the same last name!" Cool.

The annoyed expression that crossed her face was completely unexpected. Didn't she think it was cool?

"Yeah." She added, voice full of snark that was completely out of character. "And the same mother, and father, and grandparents…"

It took Austin a few moments to process the words that had come out of her mouth. When he did, his mind was sent into a flurry of denial. No, she was wrong. She had to be. The beatings he'd undergone must be causing him to hallucinate. It just wasn't possible…

"My sister died." Austin said, trying to explain, a slight note of hysteria in his voice that even he noticed. "She got sick when I was six and she didn't pull through. I was at her funeral! I saw them bury the coffin. I even sprinkled dirt on it myself. My. Sister. Is. Dead." His voice had gone several octaves higher than it was usually at. He didn't notice.

Emma just gave a dry laugh, full of a bitterness that was all wrong. "Is that what they told you? They even staged a funeral… Overkill, if you ask me, but they must have thought it was worth it…"

"Are you not listening?" Austin knew he was yelling, but he couldn't quite bring himself to care. "I saw the coffin-"

"Exactly!" She yelled, unfased by the rise in volume. "You saw a coffin! Did you see the dead body? Did your sister even seem sick to you?"

Austin paused. Actually, now that he thought about it, he hadn't seen inside the coffin. Nor had he ever noticed his sister to be sick. But…

"But my sister wasn't albino." He said. That's it. Emma couldn't be his sister, because his sister had had distinctly blue eyes, a very dark blue that didn't seem possible. A person doesn't forget eyes like that.

I've always been an albino." She said. Her voice had gone dangerously low. She wasn't just bitter, Austin realised. She was angry, and she had finally been given a chance to let it all out. "It's something you're born with, something that can't be cured. Not that they didn't try. Mom and Dad, I mean. They hated my eyes- I think they thought it was the sign of the devil, or something ridiculous like that. They thought if they could fix it, they could pretend that they hadn't given birth to someone so strange- or, in their words, demonic." She practically spat the word, eyes haunted with the memory of things long past. Austin heart was crashing in his chest. His parents wouldn't do that… Right?

"When they realised there was no cure, they tried to cover it up." Emma continued. "They died my hair to a reasonably blonde colour, but it would never last. They even made me wear contacts to make my eyes look blue, but the red made the blue look all wrong, made it too dark to be real." Austin had noticed that about his sister, actually. Eyes dark blue, too blue to be real. Turns out it truly was too blue to be real. "And then a chance came, a chance they couldn't refuse. Some super religious people promised they could put me in the care of someone who could handle my- what was it? Oh yeah, wrongness. It was exactly like a normal adoption, they said. They promised that I'd be cared for, that they would handle my… needs." Emma breathed in deeply, having delivered the whole story without a breath.

Austin couldn't believe what he was hearing. There were so many things wrong with what she was describing. And yet, it all eerily made perfect sense. Austin's parents were super religious, not to mention superstitious. From the way they reacted to albino gerbils in a pet store, he could definitely imagine that they would freak out over having an albino daughter. But were they really so caught up in their beliefs that they would give up their daughter like that, to a complete stranger? It seemed unbelievable. His parents were good, and kind, and loving. They were amazing parents.

But then, Austin wasn't an albino. He wasn't the one with blood-red eyes.

"What happened?" Austin asked, realising the story wasn't quite over. "How did you end up here?"

Emma gave a huge sigh, and all the anger and bitterness seemed to pour out of her, leaving her tired and worn. "Nothing went wrong." She said softly, sitting on the floor in front of Austin. "They gave me away… To him. They apparently staged my death, too, so no one would ask questions. I've been down here ever since."

"But you would've been three when it happened." Austin said, in a last ditch effort to argue. "How could you remember all this? How do you know it was my family?"

Emma looked back up at him, eyes wet and very, very sad. "Because I can't forget anything. That's how I managed to learn anything down here. I don't forget a single detail. And…" She reached from under her shirt, and pulled out a golden locket. How had he never noticed that before? Austin must have gone blind from the light. She unfastened the strap, and undid the clasp on the locket itself. She stood up and showed it to Austin.

There, in the tiny little picture frame, was a picture of his mother, his father, and him, from when he was about seven. Austin recognised the picture because there was one just like it hanging from his wall at home.

"They gave it to me right before giving me away." She explained, retying the locket around her head and tucking it under her shirt. "I think, maybe, somewhere deep down, they felt bad for what they were going to do. Maybe some sort of parental instinct took over for a moment. I guess they just wanted to give me something to remember them by."

Austin looked the girl in the eyes, taking in the red that had landed her in this situation. Austin wasn't exactly ready to believe such horrible things of his parents, but the picture was proof of her heritage. He couldn't deny it any longer. She really was his sister.

A horrible wave of guilt poured over him. Oh gosh, he'd been a part of this. How could she even stand to look at him? "I'm so sorry." He said. There was nothing else he could say.

She gave him a small smile. "Oh, it's not your fault." She said. "You were only six. And really…" She paused for a moment and bit her lip again. "I kinda missed having a big brother." She said earnestly.

Austin's guilt subsided a bit, and he found it being replaced by fierce determination. Now, getting her out had become absolutely important. Maybe even more important than getting himself out. He'd thought she was dead. Now, Austin had a sister again, and God be damned if he was going to let her slip away again. But first, a few more questions…

"So mom and dad know who took me?" Austin asked, keeping his voice steady, despite the sudden wave of exhaustion and nausea.

"No" She said, her faraway look returning. "They never met." She started to scribble in her little notebook, flipping to a page that seemed to full for anything else to be written on it.

Well, that was something. At least they weren't withholding information. That would've been crossing a line. Although, Austin was starting to seriously wonder exactly how important children were to Mr. and Mrs. Moon. But that was a problem for another day, and a discussion for another place.

"Come with me." Austin said. She looked up from her notepad, eyebrows raised. He continued. "When they come get me, you can come with me. It doesn't matter what mom and dad think. I'll never give you away." Austin spoke with absolute sincerity. If his parents wouldn't care for her, he'd have to step up as her big brother and take care of her. It was his job. It would be the right thing to do.

She simply gave a vague smile, seemingly looking forward to a foggy future.

"We'll see."


	14. Deductions and Revelations

**Hey guys! **

**I'm so sorry it took so long to post this. First week of school and all that. I'll try to post another chapter before the weekend's over.**

**Enjoy!**

It had taken all of Ally's self-control not to take immediate action on the new information. Austin's information was pretty precise, for his situation anyways, and Ally knew very well that the police would be able to find Austin pretty quickly once she submits the info. But informing the police runs the risk of the maniac finding out about the search, and moving Austin to somewhere more remote. They just had to find out who this maniac was, and then they could launch a search. And with Tilly on board…

Oh my dear sweet lord, Tilly! They left a psychotic girl alone in their bedroom! The bedroom of people she hates! What on earth was she thinking?!

Ally shot up out of the chair. Trish gave her a questioning look, but didn't ask, knowing the alarmed look on her face meant action, not questions. Ally grabbed her friend by the wrist, who responded by raising her eyebrows. In a quiet voice, so the police couldn't hear, Ally said "We left Tilly alone."

Trish's eyes went wide as she took in the words. This clearly had not occurred to her, either. "Uh oh." She said, an alarmed tone to her voice. "We need to get back-"

"We can't!"

Both girls turned toward Dez, whose sudden outburst shocked them. He had an alarmed look in his eyes, and held up his camera by way of explanation. "I have to film the police, remember?" Ally hadn't realised that he had grabbed the camera before leaving.

Trish rolled her eyes. "He's not here, doufus. We just saw him on camera."

Ally stopped in her tracks, shock coursing through her. She couldn't believe it hadn't occurred to her already. Trish was right; the maniac wasn't there, because he was with Austin. Unless he was being kept in the basement of the police station, the maniac couldn't be among the police at the station, which meant that all the police who were there at the moment couldn't be Austin's kidnapper. That narrowed down the list of possible suspects considerably.

"Trish!" Ally yelled, turning to her friend and grabbing her again by the arm. "That's it! The maniac isn't here, so we know that none of the police here took Austin."

Trish narrowed her eyes in confusion. "How is that supposed to help us?"

Ally sighed in exasperation. Sometimes, her friends could be really slow. "It helps us, because we can figure out who the culprit is by filming the people who aren't here."

Dez was even more confused than Trish. "How can I film people who aren't here?" He asked.

"No, you can't film them." Ally said. Realising she wasn't making any sense, she clarified "They all keep pictures." She pointed out the various desks, which indeed were all littered with pictures. "Film those. We can take them back to Tilly, and the maniac won't suspect a thing, because he wasn't here when the filming took place."

Trish beamed. "Ally, that's brilliant!" she said. Turning to Dez, she added "Well, what are you waiting for? Start filming!"

Dez shook himself out of his stupor. He didn't seem to fully understand the plan, but he knew better than to argue with Trish when she used that tone on him. He quickly took out his camera and turned it on. Trish followed him around, making sure he filmed what he was supposed to. Despite knowing each other for a year, Trish still didn't trust him, and rightfully so. Ally still clearly remembered when Dez accidentally told the entire school about Trish's crush on Darren Trey, the hottest guy in the city. Dez had to hide from Trish for a week.

Ally turned, and returned to the other police. She decided that since she could trust the police at the station, she should tell them about Austin's message. The police were delighted when she relayed the message; it was exactly what she they'd been hoping for. Ally was adamant, however, that they keep the search strictly within confidential bounds. Ally didn't want the maniac to show up for work later to find a search underway.

Even so, Ally was relieved that they were looking in the right area. There couldn't be too many houses that fit Austin's description, and Ally had high hopes that they'd find him soon. She was already imagining what she would do when she saw him. Hugging him to death was at the top of the list. Yelling at him for being stupid was a close second.

The sound of the door opening drew Ally's attention, and she whirled around, scared that the person entering was a police officer. When the form of detective Mark appeared in the doorway, Ally sighed in relief. He scoured the room with the glance and spotted her. He hurried toward her.

"I just got a call." He said, eyes looking a little frantic. "I heard there was a development in the case. What happened?"

Ally pulled him over into a conference room. Even though she knew that none of the police in the station were the ones who hurt Austin, she didn't feel like she could trust them completely.

"We got a video call." Ally started. "From Austin."

Ally explained the whole ordeal to the detective, leaving out the rollercoaster of emotions she experienced at the time. His expression grew darker and darker as she finished her story.

"It's a good thing he got that message to us." He said. "With a beating like that, I can't be sure how much more time he has. Hopefully, we'll get there in time." He made for the door, intent on joining the search for Austin. He stopped as his hand rested on the doorknob. "You should go back to your hotel." He said. "I'll call you the second we've got a location. Right now, you look like you could use some sleep."

Ally smiled at him weakly. It was true, she hadn't slept nearly enough in the past few days. But she doubted she'd have any more luck at sleep until Austin was found. Still, there wasn't much more to do there, and Ally wanted to get back to Tilly before the girl ripped apart her room. She agreed.

Ally walked out of the room and tracked down Trish and Dez. The two were arguing over something, and honestly, Ally didn't care to find out what. Those two were always arguing about something or other.

"Hey" Ally called out, forcing the two to stop fighting and turn their attention to her. "Are you done?"

"Yeah" Trish answered as Dez put away his camera in his bottomless backpack. "Let's head back, before Tilly decides to disappear or destroy our stuff." Ally was pretty sure they were too late to prevent the latter, but she agreed, and the three of them headed out, the Moons having already left.

They took another taxi to get to the hotel, which annoyed Ally. She hated having to depend so heavily on someone else, and yet, they wouldn't have gotten anything done without the taxi service of Toronto. It was a bit of a paradox.

Soon enough, they found themselves at their hotel, and the three of them stumbled out of the vehicle. They wasted no time in making their way up to their rooms, silently praying that Tilly hadn't messed with anything important.

When they opened the door, however, they found the room to be in the exact condition that they had left it. For a wild moment, Ally thought that Tilly had left, but she quickly spotted the girl sitting on a chair near the window, doing something so ordinary, Ally had to blink a couple of times to make sure she wasn't hallucinating.

Tilly was reading a book.

She looked up as the group walked in. As soon as she saw who it was, she composed her face into a sneer. It was a shame, really, Ally thought. She was very pretty when her face wasn't overshadowed by some dark emotion.

"We got the footage." Trish said, skipping formalities and jumping straight to the matter at hand.

"Fine." Tilly sighed, as if it was the most inconvenient thing in the world for her. "Show it to me."

While Dez linked his camera to the computer so he could play the footage, Ally filled Tilly in on everything that had happened at the police station, all the while feeling weird that she was confiding in her. Ally figured that she owed Tilly something for not messing up the room, however, and she had nothing else to offer.

"That was really smart." Tilly noted. "But I think you should focus on the girl. She wasn't tied up, but she helped Austin. She could be in some serious trouble right now." Tilly didn't look bothered by the idea. Ally, on the other hand, was suddenly very worried for this little albino girl. She owed the girl everything, and Ally needed the chance to tell her thank you for helping to save Austin. Ally hoped she was alright.

"Got it!" came Dez's voice. He turned the computer screen toward the girls. Trish came over to watch, and the foursome watched the video playback.

Dez had gotten a good fifteen minutes of footage in, and it was a while before Tilly had any sort of reaction. When she did though, there was no hesitation. The camera shot passed over a desk with a family picture, and she jumped up, pointing at the screen.

"That's him!"

Dez paused the video and they all took in the picture. Dez noted what they were all thinking. "There's no guy in that picture.

Tilly rolled her eyes. "Not the picture." She said with a sneer. "Him!"

She pointed again, and this time Ally followed her direction to a point beyond the screen where Ally was talking.

To detective Mark.

**So? What do you think? If you think it's all figured out, look back on the timeline. Hmmm… something's wrong with the timing…. Poor Austin and Ally have no idea what they've stumbled into!**


	15. Searches and Rescue parties

**Hey guys, I'm back! **

**I'm so sorry it took so long to update. I know it's been a little over two weeks. My excuses are that school just started and I've been struggling through a massive writer's block for this story. But that's past now, and I'll have the next chapter up really soon, I swear!**

**Anyways, Enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Austin and Ally**

Ally wasted no time in taking action. A part of her knew that detective Mark couldn't be the actual culprit because of the timing between the video and his arrival, but with Tilly's information, she was certain that he was involved. Which meant that the maniac, whoever he was, would soon know about the search. She grabbed Trish by the arm and, after shouting at Dez to stay with Tilly, ran out the door.

Trish stumbled along after Ally, with a look on her face that was a cross between alarm and denial. "It can't be him." She murmured. "It can't be. Austin said an hour. He wasn't gone that long." It wasn't a particularly articulate explanation, but Ally had come to the same conclusion, so she knew what she was talking about. The two girls reached the lobby and Ally turned to face her friend.

"I know." She said. "But maybe we weren't thinking big enough. Maybe there's more than one person involved in this." She thought back to the albino in the video. "Maybe this isn't even about just Austin."

Trish didn't look like she was buying it. No, not exactly, Ally corrected. She looked like she didn't want to buy it. "Tilly could have been lying." She pointed out.

"I don't think she was lying." Ally said, with such a certainty that Trish let it go. Ally wasn't even sure if Tilly could lie, at least when she was face to face with someone.

Ally called for a cab and the duo stood waiting in silence. There was a troubled look on Trish's face that Ally was pretty sure was mirrored on her own. She felt betrayed. She'd been sure that the detective was the one person she could trust, the one person who would stop at nothing to get Austin back. Now she knew that he was part of the reason he went missing in the first place. It made her angry.

Ally was practically bouncing in her seat the whole way to the police station in anticipation. She didn't know what she was going to do when she got there, only that she had to do something, anything that would keep the detective at the station long enough for the police to send out a search party. She couldn't risk Austin being moved. Ally knew a chance like the video wouldn't come up again. Also… well, she wasn't sure how much time Austin had left.

Ally thought the driver might have picked up on the urgency of getting to the station, because they made record time in getting there. Ally jumped out immediately, trusting Trish to pay the driver. She did, and rushed after the retreating form of her friend.

Ally burst into the police station, earning her a few strange looks from nearby police. She didn't notice. She spotted that police man (what was his name? Something with an M… Morgan, that's right.) and ran over to him. He was surprised to see them.

"Ms. Dawson. I thought you had gone back to the hotel?" He said.

"I had." she replied, a little short of breath. "But we've…" Her voice trailed off for a second and she glanced back at Trish. What should she say? "We've got something we need to discuss with Detective Mark. Is he here?"

He gave her an almost wary look. "No." He replied. "He had to go home. Said it was an emergency." Ally's heart sank into her stomach, and she felt sick.

"Of course he did." Trish muttered in resentment. Ally elbowed her in the side, reminding her that he was a respected member of the police force and her tone was suspicious. She caught on and gave the startled police officer her biggest fake smile. This startled him even more, but he didn't ask questions.

"How's the search coming?" Ally asked. It was now more important than ever that they get to Austin soon. They didn't have a second to waste, because like Trish, ally had a very good impression on what 'emergency' had pulled the detective away.

Officer Morgan's face turned serious. "Fast." He said. Ally felt the sweet flickers of hope. "Incredibly fast, actually. There are very few places those coordinates could be referring to, and we've narrowed the search to a few houses. I was going to call you, but the detective said you hadn't gotten enough rest and we needed to let you sleep a bit longer." Ally couldn't hide her scowl at the last words. Of course he would say that.

"Can we see what you have?" Ally asked. She wanted to help. She wanted to get to Austin before time ran out. She had formed a clock in her imagination, and it was ticking down. Still, she was somewhat surprised when he agreed to show them what they had come up with so far.

The officer led them to the back room, the same one from earlier where the video feed from Austin had come through. She couldn't help but shudder at the memory. It hadn't been that long ago, after all, and it would be a very long time before she'd be able to banish those haunting images of Austin from her mind.

There was a crew of people set up at a table. On it was a map of the Toronto area and surrounding communities. They circled a town in the direction Austin had indicated, a very small community with a smaller population. They circled in red all the houses that fit the description. All of the houses that were circled were also up on a big screen on the wall beside the table, giving them all a view of the houses under suspicion.

"Cross off all the ones that aren't owned by a male." A female officer was saying. Her eyes showed an urgency that put Ally somewhat at ease. At least someone understood how vital it was that they found him soon.

Her order had cut the list considerably, but not enough. The lady frowned, looking at the houses on the screen. After about thirty seconds of contemplation, she added. "Cross off the ones that don't have a basement. He' being kept in a cellar of some sort." Smart, Ally thought.

That cut the list again, and they now had about ten houses on the list. The lady who was in charge took a moment to realise the girls were there, and she came over to them.

She was a stunning sight, ally could give her that. She wasn't dressed in a uniform, so Ally figured she wasn't a police. Probably a detective. She had blonde hair that was tied back in a ponytail, and a tanned complexion that suggested she spent a lot of time out in the sun. She seemed to have a way of dominating the room, making it a given that no one would question her authority.

"My name is Lissa." She said, offering her hand. Ally took it, noting that she was the first person they'd met at the station who didn't introduce herself with a title. "You're Ally and Trish, right?"

The two nodded in confirmation. She nodded back toward the screen. "We've almost got him. Got any suggestions?"

Trish just shook her head, but Ally looked at each picture, giving it some thought. She was pretty good at solving problems, after all, and was a straight A student at school. She decided to treat this as a word problem, like a school assignment. It definitely helped with nerves.

Ally looked at each picture, at all their details, and compared them to the scene of Austin in the basement. She brought back to the front of her mind all the details of Austin's surroundings. Concrete floors and walls. No windows. Wooden chair. She turned the facts in her mind. It was like a spot the difference game. What didn't match?

After a couple of minutes, she found something. "The basement was unfinished." Ally said. "Any houses who have a finished basement can be crossed off."

Lissa looked impressed, and informed the others to do exactly that. They were able to take down four of the ten pictures, and Ally continued tossing options in her head. There had to be something else, something she was missing, something they were all missing.

It was Trish who came up with the next possibility. She'd been staring at the pictures from behind Ally, eyes narrowed in thought after Ally's suggestion. After a few more seconds, she said "It can't be a town house. The neighbours would've heard something. Believe me, I know." Ally smiled at that. Trish lived in a townhouse, and complained a lot about her noisy neighbours.

Lissa smacked her head, as if she felt stupid for not thinking of it herself. "Of course." She muttered. "Cross of the town houses."

That brought the list down to three. Each house was average looking, all of them seemingly innocent, though she knew one of them held her friend captive. They were all two stories (with a basement) and were all in a suburban area, at the right distance from Toronto. There was nothing about any of them that set off Ally's alarms, nothing to make them look suspicious. Ally frowned. If only they had pictures of the houses, they'd be able to tell if the basement fit the description.

And then she got it. "Have these houses gone on sale recently?" She asked. She was nursing a theory.

Lissa checked it. "Two of them." She said.

Ally smiled. "Then there are pictures of the houses, right? People take pictures of the house to advertise them on websites and whatnot."

Lissa gave a smile that was almost mischievous. "There would be." She said. She turned her gaze to the researchers. "Find those pictures."

It took ten minutes for them to hunt down the pictures, but they finally did, and sure enough, it turned out to be exactly what they were looking for. Because one look at the photos of the two basements told them that those were not the houses they were looking for. The layout didn't match, and neither had concrete walls.

They'd found Austin.

A rescue party was put together, and Ally called the Moons to tell them they were sending people to get Austin. Mrs. Moon cried out in relief, and promised to get to the station as soon as possible. Ally hung up after that and hunted down Lissa. There was something she had to do.

Ally found the blonde talking to the leader of the search party. Both stopped talking as she approached and turned to her.

"I want to come." Ally said. Ally could see their protest written on their faces, and she rushed on "It's for Austin's sake. You saw him in the video. He might need to have someone he knows nearby." She knew it was a weak argument, and she knew that they knew it. But she had to try.

So, needless to say, she was utterly shocked when they agreed to let her come. They made it clear that only she could accompany them though, and that she had to stay in the car when they scoured out the place. She agreed eagerly. It was a bit harder to get Trish to agree to it, but she caved eventually, and promised to keep her cell phone handy.

Ally climbed into the back seat of the black car, anticipation and worry taking over. Her mental clocked was ticking down, and she sent up a prayer that they wouldn't be too late.

Don't worry, Austin, she thought.

We're coming for you.


	16. Emma and The Maniac

**Okay, this chapter is absolutely insane. It's long, too, one of the longer chapters. It was 12:30 at night by the time I finished it, and I didn't even realise. **

**Anyways, this chapter is really important, because this is the chapter that really sets up the story for a possible sequel. Please tell me if you want a sequel. If you do, I'll look into it. **

**The song in this chapter is 'Come little children'. Search it up on youtube and pick the first option by ILoveThesePeople. It inspired me and scared the crap out of me at the same time. **

**Enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Austin and Ally**

"Austin! Austin, wake up!"

Austin fought tiredly through the daze, struggling to open his eyes. Doing so was a lot harder than he thought it would be. Even harder was focusing enough to look up at Emma's frantic red eyes and worried face. She had her hands on his arms, having shaken him to keep him from falling to far into the daze.

"Sorry." He murmured, his voice only just loud enough for her to hear. He knew she was right, that he had to stay awake if he wanted to survive. But it was so hard. He wanted so badly to give into the darkness, to have that sweet bliss of nothingness take him away from the pain in his heart and body. But he couldn't. He couldn't give up. He couldn't sleep, not yet.

Emma took a step back from him and ducked her head. "You scared me for a second." She said. Austin immediately felt bad. "Don't worry." He said. "I haven't given up yet." At this, she gave him a fleeting look, and she turned, running back to her corner of the room. She sat down at the piano bench and pulled out her notebook.

Austin watched her scribble in silence. He still didn't quite know what to make of the fact that she was his sister. It changed everything. His parents had lied to him. They had given away- illegally- their only daughter and his only sister. He felt like he didn't know them at all. Where in that story was his sweet mother, the one who called him her sweetie and pinched his cheeks? It just wasn't processing very well. He decided to blame it on head injuries.

He veered his thoughts away from the troubling topic, still watching his sister write. Something about it made him feel calm inside, tickling his memory. It took him a minute to figure out what it was (again, he blamed this on his concussion). When he did, he actually laughed, fleetingly because it hurt.

"You look just like Ally when you write." Austin said, as she looked up from her notebook in surprise from the laugh.

It was true. When she was writing, she sat with her legs crossed, her head bent down and her hair tumbling over her shoulders like Ally's would do when she was writing in her super-secret songbook. It was incredible, almost as if she was intentionally portraying Ally to make him feel better. He knew she wasn't, though, which is why it was funny.

"Huh." She said, then, smiling, she said. "I wonder if we're alike in other ways."

Austin didn't think so, but that was more because Emma often seemed a little insane. Maybe if she'd grown up with him, like she was supposed to, she would be more like Ally. So, he said. "I dunno. Maybe."

Her face softened as she regarded him, and she walked over to him, setting her notebook down on the piano bench. She sat down on the floor before him, as she often did. "You know they're coming, right?" She said.

Austin sighed. "I know." He said. It was more a matter of when, and if he could hold on that long. She seemed to know it, too, and she frowned at him.

"You'll be okay." She insisted.

Austin didn't want to talk about it. It made his head hurt. So he changed the topic. "What were you writing?" He said, hoping she wasn't as super secretive about her book as Ally.

She tilted her head at him. "A song." She said. Apparently, she had no qualms about talking about it.

This was interesting. Austin remembered the last time she sang for him. He wasn't sure how long ago it was. It felt like days, but had probably been mere hours. She had an amazing voice. He asked "Can you sing it for me?"

She frowned slightly. "It's dark." She said.

Austin wasn't sure he understood. He knew his songs were 'light', but he never really understood what light and dark referred to when talking about songs. "What do you mean?" He asked.

"What inspired it." She said. She looked down at the floor and started tracing something with her finger. "I was thinking about the others."

Austin didn't have to ask what she was talking about. He knew. She meant all the others that had come before him, everyone who had sat and died in the chair he was tied to at the moment. Everyone she'd had to watch suffer. A chill ran up his spine as he thought about it. But he didn't waver. In fact, it only made him more curious. He needed to know.

"That's okay." He said. She looked up in surprise. "Can I still hear it?"

She nodded, still surprised, and walked over to the piano. She took her notebook and, just like the last time, set it in front of her, and started to play. The first few notes already gave him chills.

_Come Little Children_

_I'll Take Thee Away,_

_Into A Land_

_Of Enchantment_

_Come Little Children_

_The Time's Come To Play_

_Here In My Garden_

_Of Shadows_

_Follow Sweet Children_

_I'll Show Thee The Way_

_Through All The Pain _

_And The Sorrows_

_Weep Not Poor Children_

_For Life Is This Way_

_Murdering Beauty_

_And Passions_

_Hush Now Dear Children_

_It Must Be This Way_

_Too Weary Of Life _

_And Deceptions_

_Rest Now My Children_

_For Soon We'll Away_

_Into The Calm _

_And The Quiet_

_Come Little Children_

_I'll Take Thee Away, _

_Into A Land_

_Of Enchantment_

_Come Little Children_

_The Time's Come To Play_

_Here In My Garden_

_Of Shadows_

As she trailed to the last note, Austin found that his whole body had gone down about five degrees. That had been the eeriest song he'd ever heard in his life, both because of the words and the way she'd sung it. There was something in particular about the song that especially bothered him.

"Have they all been children?" He asked, trying not to imagine it while he did.

She nodded morosely. "Younger than you." She said. "Normally my age. He always brought in kids my age, unless he had to bring in someone older. Sometimes because he was told. Sometimes for money."

Austin couldn't begin to imagine what sort of scars that had left on his sister. He'd always sort of assumed that the other victims had been older people, teenagers like him or people a bit older than that. But her age? And she'd said it had always been that way. He could only imagine for a fleeting second what she went through as a kid, just a little five year old, or even four year old girl, trying to comfort another terrified little girl or boy. What could she have told them? Was there anything she could have said to make them feel better? Austin felt sick. And angry. Angry at the sick maniac who had put his sister through this. There was no reason to it, no logic. The whole thing was pure insanity.

Much later, Austin would figure that his thinking had summoned Him, or perhaps the universe had taken a sudden and intense dislike of him, because it could not have been worse timing when He came barreling down the stairs, frantically muttering to himself incoherently. He had a frantic look on his face, and his eyes darted around as if he were expecting figures to emerge from the wall.

"We're leaving." He said, facing Emma. He wasn't sure who was more surprised in that moment; him or Emma. Her eyes went wide and she scrambled to her feet, grabbing her notebook and rolling her sleeping bag into a ball, which she tucked under her arm. He came over to Austin and untied him from the hair without uncuffing his hands. He pulled him to his feet, and both his legs screamed in pain, both broken, one of them in a couple spots. He managed to stay on his feet for exactly five seconds before he collapsed. The maniac didn't protest, and simply picked him up in his arms like a child, moving toward the stairs.

As the maniac brought him up the stairs and Emma was shoved in front of us, Austin's heart sank, his hopes scattering to the wind. He'd heard about it. Somehow, He had found out about the message they'd sent and he knew that the police knew where to look. Now, he was moving them before they could be found. And once they left, Austin would have no way of sending another message to his friends. He was doomed.

As they reached the main floor and Emma opened the door, she shot him an extremely panicked look. She'd come to the same conclusion as he had. She knew as well as he did that if they left then, Austin had no chance of surviving. The maniac shoved her forward, and she stumbled into the area, and area that chased away all other thoughts from Austin's mind.

Austin had been drugged when he'd been dragged into this hell hole, so he hadn't seen any part of the house other than the basement. He had been expecting a pretty normal setting, basing that thought on movies and shows he'd seen about scenarios like his.

He was wrong.

The main floor had no furniture. The whole thing was bare, and all the windows were covered by heavy drapes, all black. The floor was concrete, the whole thing, and entirely flat. And on the floor, covering every square inch of the surface, were elaborate symbols, a lot of them in circles. Austin had no idea what any of the symbols meant. The walls were all covered in writings, texts in a different language. He recognised Latin, but nothing else. Candles in the corners of the space were all hat cast light. The whole scene was intruiging, and confusing. And insane.

Austin's reaction had nothing on Emma's however. Though Austin had no idea what the symbols meant, he was pretty sure she did. She had stumbled into a circle, and looked around in horror, taking in the various symbols. She dropped her things, but didn't seem to notice. She whirled around frantically, taking in the crazy scene. Finally, she settled to look at the maniac, and Austin saw something in those red eyes he'd never seen before; tears.

"You wouldn't…" She muttered, choking on a sob. Austin wanted to reach out to her, to comfort her, but he didn't have the strength to do anything but watch.

"Iron…" He muttered, not acknowledging Emma. "I need the iron cuffs…"

"No!" Emma yelled, her tiny hands balled into fists. He looked down at her, freezing as he took in her angry expression. Austin was pretty sure she'd never lost her temper before. "This is stupid! You're stupid! That's not what I am!" The tears were flowing now, and her face was going pink.

The maniac seemed to be genuinely scared of her sudden anger, which was ridiculous, considering the weight he had on her. He set Austin down on the floor, and he immediately crawled over to the wall, leaning on it for support, watch the scene before him unfold while trying to fight against the darkness that threatened to take him away.

"It is." The maniac said, his voice quivering. Austin was extremely confused. He reached for one of his many pouches, and brought up a water bottle. He began saying something in another language, screwing off the lid.

Emma's face went from beat red to white in a matter of seconds, all the blood draining from her face. Tears stopped flowing and her eyes turned to ice. Her entire body tensed. "Fine" She murmured.

What happened next was completely unexplainable and would keep Austin lying awake for many nights, wondering if it had really happened. Because surely, he must have been imagining it, because there was absolutely no way that what his eyes were telling him at that moment was possible.

Emma ran forward to the maniac. He tried to back up, but couldn't move fast enough. He splashed the water on her, but it did nothing to slow her. With a scream, she slammed both hands into the maniac, and he went flying, literally lifting off the ground and slamming, head first and hard, into the wall. He didn't even have time to make a sound. He simply collapsed to the ground in a heap, his head twisting sideways, eyes wide and blank.

He didn't move again.

Emma came rushing over to Austin, all traces of anger completely vanished. Her eyes were wide with worry, and as she shook him slightly, there was no sign of incredible, impossible strength. Austin couldn't make sense of it.

"They're almost here." Emma said. Austin didn't question how she knew this. "Just hold on a little longer, kay?"

Austin nodded, and he felt her press something into his hand. After some serious efforts of concentration, he realised she'd given him her notebook. She'd marked a page. "Read it." She said simply. He nodded again, promising he would.

Then she was gone, and the last thing Austin remembered before the darkness dragged him under was the fleeting hope that she hadn't gone far.


	17. Hospitals and Mysteries

**Okay, so not much happens in this chapter, I guess, but it's part of the story, and has to be told. Anyways, I hope you enjoy it! We're really nearing the end now, and I'm mentally preparing for the possible sequel. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Austin and Ally**

Ally had been bouncing nervously the whole ride, but not because of Austin, though he was at the back of her mind. What had her so nervous was the speed by which they were shooting down the highway.

She'd seen police break the speed limit like this before, both on highways and on city streets. But never before had she truly understood exactly how fast it was that those vehicles were moving. She had to look away from the windows because the blurring trees made her feel sick, and once they reached the highway, they took the little strip on the side, so the ride became bumpy and loud, and Ally found herself clutching her seat in anxiety.

Still, she was grateful for the speed, because it meant that they were getting to Austin fast. She blessed the driver for his extreme speed that made her want to hurl. The sooner they got to Austin, the better.

They made incredible time getting to the house, managing the trip in half an hour as opposed to the hour it would have taken at normal speed. Even so, the whole trip seemed to drag on forever, and it was a relief when they finally arrived at their destination.

The police cars stopped abruptly in front of the house, trying to manage a semi-circle in front of it. The police men filed out of the cars and took out their guns. They went up to the door and knocked loudly, demanding entry. There was no response so, guns ready, a force of police burst through the door.

Ally watched in a daze, and with a little fear. She was scared that they wouldn't find Austin. She was scared that the maniac had a gun, and there would be shooting. She was scared someone would get hurt. All the possibilities were driving her insane.

Ally finally couldn't stand the tension, so she got out of the car, standing next to it awkwardly. None of the police who had stayed outside noticed, and ally was glad.

Finally, someone came out of the house and signalled to the others that they could put their weapons away. They obeyed, and soon, police were filing out, two of them supporting a limp, blonde figure.

Ally cried out, and before she knew it, she found herself rushing toward her friend. He was barely conscious, and unable to support himself, but, thank the gods, he was alive. Ally felt something loosen in her chest and she knew she was grinning broadly as she gently pulled him into a hug. He couldn't hug her back, because he had his arms around the two police men who were supporting him, but he whispered her name in her ear, and it was enough.

Ally pulled back and took over from one of the police men, throwing one of Austin's arms around her. With the other police, she brought him over to a spot on the grass they had laid blankets down on. The two set him down gently, making him as comfortable as possible while they waited for the ambulance to arrive.

Austin had no strength to even hold his head up, and simply lay down in a head. He looked up at the sky, not really seeing it, and Ally felt herself begin to worry again.

Laying down on the grass like that, Ally had the chance to really take in all his injuries, and what she saw was scary. He was bruised all over, some areas swollen so much that Ally had no doubt broken bones were involved. Dried blood could be found in several spots on his body, one being on the side of his head. His hair was dishevelled and dirty, as were his clothes, which were the same clothes Ally had last seen him in. The appearance was overwhelming.

It took Ally a moment to realise he was muttering something. When she did, she leaned in to hear him better.

"Emma…. Where's Emma…." He was saying. His eyes were darting from side to side, and he managed to bring his hand up, which, Ally noted for the first time, held some sort of journal. Ally figured that Emma was the albino in the video call. Ally supposed she owed her Austin's life.

"They haven't found anyone else yet." Ally said gently. She suddenly very much hoped that they would soon.

Austin just blinked at her, but he stopped asking for her. He seemed to be focusing all his energy on grasping that book as tightly as he could. Ally was curious, almost curious enough to look in it, but she had a feeling that whatever was written in that book was personal. And Ally knew very well how awful when someone invaded such privacy. So she left the book alone, figuring that Austin would share it with her eventually if he felt he could.

Austin finally seemed to manage to focus on her, and he gave her a very small smile. "Missed you." He managed to say.

Ally wanted to cry. "I missed you too." She said. Then, with a sterner voice "Don't ever do that again."

"Kay" He said. Still focusing on her, he reached out with his hand, the one without the book, and put it on top of hers. Ally felt tingles shoot up from the spot they touched, and she turned her hand over, lacing her fingers with his. She leaned forward and, in a daring move that wasn't like her, Ally stroked her fingers through Austin hair. This seemed to relax him considerable, and his breathing eased up a bit, his eyes staying focused on her.

Ally didn't even flinch when the police brought out a body in a body bag. She knew, based on the size, that it must be the maniac, and she felt no remorse. He deserved it, whatever it was that happened to him. Ally knew it couldn't have been Austin, what with his state, and that left a bit of a mystery, one she hoped that Austin would later help solve.

The two of them stayed just as they were, in silence, until the ambulance showed up five minutes later. They came and put Austin on a stretcher, loading him into an ambulance. Ally demanded to go with him, and they let her, she figured because Austin refused to let go of her hand. That is, until he passed out from the pain he was no doubt suffering in. Ally waited for some sort of reaction, maybe anger like she'd been experiencing for days, but it never came. She supposed she had no one to be angry at anymore.

No, that's not quite true, she thought to herself, frowning. There was still the matter of detective Mark to take care of. But she decided to worry about that later. Right now, Austin needed her.

Ally was inevitably parted from Austin when they reached the hospital. They took him into emergency surgery for several injuries they had found on the way over. Ally had blocked it all out, not wanting to know exactly how much her friend was suffering. So it wasn't long after that Ally found herself sitting in the waiting room for the ICU, wringing her hands anxiously, waiting for news on her friend.

It wasn't long after Ally had sat down that she realised she should probably call the others, who were probably still waiting anxiously for some news back in Toronto. With a heavy sigh, she took out her phone and dialed Trish's number. She picked up after a single ring and started talking before Ally could say anything.

"Ally! Oh my gosh, what's going on? They got a call saying they found some people, but they wouldn't give any details! What happened? Is Austin Okay?-"

"Trish!" Ally yelled into the phone, trying to get her friend's attention. She immediately went quiet. "Austin's okay, we found him." Ally managed. The words came out like a breath of relief, each word taking another thousand pounds off her shoulders.

Ally heard the cries of relief on the other end of the line, and she dreaded telling them about the rest- the fact that Austin was still seriously hurt. Ally had a lot of faith in doctors, but she knew Trish, at least, did not.

"Trish." Ally said again. "Stop it." She wasn't entirely sure what drove her to say those exact words.

"What is it?" She said, her voice still full of relief. Ally squirmed in her chair.

"They brought Austin to the hospital. He's hurt badly. They have him in ICU."

The other end of the line went quiet as Trish processed this, and then relayed the news to the others around her. You didn't have to have any special education to know what the ICU was when talking about a hospital. It was called the intensive care unit for a reason, and most people knew someone who had had the misfortune of seeing the inside of the ICU.

"We're on our way." Trish finally said, her voice suddenly laced with worry. Ally made quick plans to meet up with them in forty-five minutes, which was about as long as it would take to for them to get there.

Ally was seriously considering reanalyzing her definition of time, because she was positive that it never used to take so long for the seconds to pass. It was as if the clock was hardwired to go extra slow, just to annoy her and make her worry. In all that time, she didn't get any news on Austin's condition, and she hoped it was because they were too busy fixing him.

The only break in the waiting time was when officer Morgan met up with her at the hospital, bringing in details of what they had found at the house.

"He was living out of the top floor." He said, sitting down next to her. "The main floor was covered with various demonic symbols and the walls had verses from several versions of the bible. The basement was where he was holding your friend- and someone else."

"The albino." Ally said in acknowledgement.

"Right. The thing is, there was no sign of the little girl anywhere in or around the house. Even more mysterious is how either of them, or both, managed to knock their captor's head hard enough on the wall to cause fatal damage." He said, face perplexed. Ally noted that he avoided using the word 'kill'.

"Do you know who he was?" Ally asked.

"Not yet." He said. Ally frowned at him, and his eyes sparkled with sympathy. "We'll know soon enough."

The officer left not long after that. It was about twenty minutes later that the rest of the group showed up, and they all exchanged hugs and half-hearted smiles. None of them would allow themselves full relief until someone told them everything would be all right.

They waited in silence for another fifteen minutes, each of which felt like a millennia in and of itself. But at long last, those white doors swung open, revealing a doctor who was calling for Ally. The group waved him over, and he approached the group, his face expressionless. Ally figured that doctors must take classes on poker faces.

"You're Mr. and Mrs. Moon?" The doctor asked, referring to Austin's parents. They nodded their heads.

"You're son was a bit of a tricky case. He had a lot of internal bleeding, and some bone fragments had made their way into some troublesome areas. We managed to remove them," The doctor added quickly, when everyone's eyes went wide. "He also has a concussion. Add to that he hasn't had proper nutrients in what I would guess is several days, and his state is a bit more serious. We've managed to stabilise him for now, but we had to induce a coma to compensate for the lack of nutrients and energy."

Mrs. Moon covered her mouth with her hand, and her husband put a supportive arm around her. Trish looked upset, and Dez looked like he was still trying to figure out what the doctor was saying. As for Ally, she had to sit down. A coma. Austin was in a coma. It brought everything to a new level of seriousness.

Finally, Ally let worry take hold of her again. She just hadn't wanted to think that Austin could still be in trouble after he was rescued. Now, she was faced with the cold, hard truth; they still didn't know if Austin would pull through.

The doctor gave them a few more reassurances, saying that they weren't particularly worried and were sure that he'd pull through. But Ally new that he had to say that, even if it wasn't true. It was in the job description.

The doctor left, and the group sat back down, preparing themselves for a long night ahead.


	18. Good news and Evidence

**Hey guys! Here's another chapter for you. I'm expecting about two more chapters in this story, so I can safely say that were almost done. **

**Enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: Blah blah blah I own nothing**

Ally would never be able to fully remember the hours of waiting on more news about Austin. She figures it was probably to block the unpleasant memories. She does remember, however, the looks of worry and exhaustion on everyone's faces, Dez trying to follow the doctors into the operation rooms to find Austin, and the stiffness in her joints.

"Ally?"

Ally looked up at the sound of her name, wincing as her neck cracked. It wasn't healthy to sit still for so long. She found herself looking into Trish's tired eyes. "Yeah?"

She looked to both sides, making sure that the others weren't listening to attentively, than turned her attention back to Ally. "None of us have eaten in hours."

Ally thought about it for a moment, then realised that she was right. None of them had eaten anything in almost twelve hours. Even in a state of worry like theirs, that was far too long to go without food. They should probably get something at the food court. But…

"We can't leave yet." Ally said. "Not until we know more on Austin's condition." He heart clenched in anxiety at the thought of not being around when the doctor came back out. She couldn't miss that.

Trish opened her mouth to argue, but at that exact moment, the doctor walked through the doors. They all recognised him from hours before, and in unison, the group jumped to their feet. The doctor was smiling slightly, which was a good sign, Ally decided.

"Mr. and Mrs. Moon." He greeted. He nodded in Ally, Trish and Dez's direction. "We've done a full set of x-rays and an MRI on Austin. We've detected no problems so far- that is to say, nothing dangerous or concerning. We've put both of his legs in casts for now, as well as his left arm. He's going to need to replace his left kneecap. His is completely shattered. But overall, he's doing very well, and we're planning to pull him out of the coma in about an hour."

Ally sighed in relief, and it was echoed by the others. He's okay. He's really okay. Broken, perhaps, but alive. Ally felt amazing, her mood lifted higher than she thought it could go. She'd forgotten what it felt like to be happy. Austin's okay. He's going to recover.

Ally's face broke into a wide grin.

Trish looked at Ally again, her eyes expressing the relief and happiness she was feeling inside. "Can we go eat now?" She said, smiling.

Ally laughed her first full, genuine laugh in oh so long. "Okay, I guess we can go eat now." She said. The others consented, and together, they all found their way to the cafeteria.

They all were chatting animatedly about nothing and everything on their way down, and Ally didn't even see officer Morgan at first. It was only when he called her name from across the room that she noticed him standing there. She ran over to him while the others got in line for food.

"Hey." She said, scrunching her eyebrows at him. She couldn't quite make out his expression.

"Ally," He greeted. "We got an ID on the man."

Ally's eyes widened in shock. She hadn't expected something so soon. Then she reminded herself that it had been hours since they'd last spoken, and she shouldn't be so surprised. "Oh." She said. She bit her lip for a second, then, gathering up the courage, she asked "Who was he?"

"His name was John Delton." He said. He still seemed somewhat bothered. "He wasn't a prominent figure, had a quiet childhood, a quiet life. But we've been able to find signs that link him to many other cases of a child's disappearance."

Ally suddenly felt a little queasy. "He did this before?" Ally asked. She tried not to imagine it- and failed.

The Officer nodded morosely. "We're pretty sure of it. But that's not the most striking thing about him. He seemed to have had a lot of contact with his family. And his brother…" His voice trailed off, his distress becoming more apparent.

"What?" Ally asked, almost dreading what was coming next, even though she had a feeling she already knew what was coming.

"His brother is Mark Delton. Detective Mark Delton." He said, with a deep sigh. Ally felt bad for this officer. Like Ally, he'd clearly trusted the detective. Knowing that he had some sort of association with a serial killer was hard. It was a jolt to your world view. She knew what that felt like. The Officer shook his head, and continued. "We have him in custody, but there's no hard proof against him, so he may get off with no charges." He said it as if that would be a good thing.

Ally felt some anger stir within her. No. This man had been associated with a serial killer. He'd played a part in Austin's kidnapping and had almost ruined their efforts to find him by warning his brother about the approaching police force. He would not get off, not if Ally had anything to say about it.

"There is proof." Ally said, her voice hard. "He made a deal with Tilly Thompson to get personal information about him and his friends. You can ask her. And check his cell phone for the call history. I'm sure he warned his brother that we'd found him. That's why Austin wasn't in the basement, and why the albino disappeared. I know it."

Officer Morgan looked understandably shocked, but also somewhat doubtful. "I interviewed Tilly Thompson." He said. "She's not exactly a reliable source of information."

"Tilly is crazy, but she doesn't lie." Ally insisted. She hated trying to defend the girl, but she needed people to believe her if they were going to stick the detective with his crimes.

The Officer still wasn't quite buying into it. "I suppose we can speak to her." He said. "But we'll have to find her. It may take a little while-"

"I know where she is." Ally interrupted. Her hopes were raised when he'd said he'd speak to Tilly. "I can take you to her."

After a couple moments of contemplation, he agreed to this. Ally rushed over to her friends, who had sat down at a table, and quickly explained the situation. The Moons were shocked, as this was the first they'd heard of the detective's insidious nature, but the other two just went along with it. They wanted to see him locked up too.

"You don't have to go back to Toronto." Trish said, once ally was done talking. "We brought her with us."

"What?" Ally asked, shocked. "Where'd you put her?" Ally knew she was treating Tilly like an object, but she didn't really deserve much more with the situation.

"We rented a room at a motel. Figured we might be here a while." Trish said. "She's there."

Ally gave her friend a strange look. "Okay…" She said after a moment. "Where is it?"

Trish gave her directions to the motel, as well as the room number and room key. She waved goodbye to the group, and quickly left with the Officer, who led her to his car. Though Ally found it a little odd that they had brought Tilly and thought ahead enough to rent a room at a motel, she was glad they had. She wanted to be there when the doctors brought Austin out of his coma, and that wouldn't have happened if she'd had to drive to Toronto to get Tilly.

The ride, as it turned out, was only about ten minutes long. Officer Morgan called to the police station and asked them to look over the detective's call log on his cell phone to see if he'd had contact with his brother recently. Officer Morgan didn't want to admit his friend had done wrong, but he was a just man and Ally had no doubt he'd look at all the evidence before drawing a positive conclusion.

Tilly was surprised to see Ally burst into the room, and even more so when she was followed by the police man. She jumped off the bed and scowled at Ally. "What is he doing here?" She sneered.

Ally scowled back at the girl. "He's here to hear your story about the detective. And he's going to listen." Ally said. She must've looked mad, because Tilly didn't make any further protests.

The detective was quite polite with Tilly, introducing himself and shaking her hand. Ally thought that maybe that had comforted Tilly a little, but she was still tense, as if she half expected him to pull out a pair of handcuffs and arrest her. Ally wondered with amusement if she'd been arrested before. It wouldn't surprise her, to say the least.

"So, what do you know about detective Mark?" Officer Morgan asked her. Her face turned hard and angry.

"I know he's a rotten, lying, good-for-nothing scumbag-"

"Tilly!" Ally interrupted, exasperated. The girl looked at her for a moment, and then started again.

"I gave him some information on team Austin." She said. "He said he'd pay me, but he never did. He just disappeared after I gave him what he wanted, until Ally showed up and took me to Toronto so I could point him out on a video."

The Officer raised his eyebrows at Ally, and she nodded, confirming Tilly's story. He didn't ask her about the video.

"I see." The Officer said after a few moments of silence. "I believe you, Tilly. But if there's no hard proof of this deal, I'm not sure we'll be able to prove that it happened."

Ally felt dismayed, and her shoulders slumped. That is, until Tilly said "I have proof."

Ally turned to her, her expression of confusion mirrored on Morgan's face. She looked back and forth between them with a look of pure innocence- or maybe it was ignorance. "It would be on tape." She explained.

Ally nearly exploded. "You mean you had a video of this all this time?!"

Tilly rolled her eyes, not noticing Ally's rage. "Duh. It happened in front of the house. Mom and Dad have tapes everywhere, to "watch me", supposedly." She used air quotes on the words 'watch me' and rolled her eyes. It took all of Ally's self-control not to punch the girl again.

"Why didn't you tell us before?" Ally said, almost shaking. Tilly gave her a wary look, finally noticing her anger.

"Sorry, I forgot." She said. Ally put her hands up, exasperated. Only Tilly Thompson could forget something like that.

Officer Morgan had taken the revelation quite calmly. Then again, he hadn't had to struggle with Tilly's shaky information before then. He smiled gently at her. "Could I have the tape?" He asked.

"Sure." Tilly said, inching away from Ally. "I'll tell my mom to mail it to you."

"How about you call your mom now and ask her." Ally suggested, not believing that Tilly would remember to call her mom later. If she could forget about the tape, she could forget anything.

Tilly did call her mom, and Ally scrutinized her the whole time. Officer Morgan got a call on his phone about halfway through Tilly's call, and he stepped out of the room to take it. He came in a couple minutes later, by which time Tilly had finished her call.

"They went through the call history on Mark's cell phone." The officer said, addressing Ally. "It turns out he did call his brother within the last day. He could very well have been warning him about the rescue mission."

Ally nodded, happy. With Tilly's tape and the evidence from the phone, she was sure that they could charge him with something. He wouldn't get off with his crimes. He would be punished.

The sounds of a ringing phone interrupted everyone's thoughts, and it took Ally a moment to realise it was her phone that was ringing. She pulled it out of her pocket and answered it.

"Hello?"

"Hey Ally. You need to get back here. Now." Came the sound of Trish's voice.

Ally frowned. "Is something wrong?"

"No." Trish answered. "They're pulling Austin out of his coma now."


	19. Awakenings and Reunions

**Okay, second last chapter, everyone! I made this chapter somewhat Auslly, so I hope you like it. Expect the last chapter soon, and I'll tell you if there will be a sequel or not. **

**Enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: Do I have to say anything else? I suppose so. Disney owns Austin and Ally. Yeah… **

The darkness was a comfort. He couldn't remember why, exactly, only that he'd felt a lot better once he let it drag him under. It had faded, briefly, and Austin had had a wonderful dream about being rescued and Ally stroking his hair, but that's all it could've been. A dream. So the darkness had taken him again, and it had been blissful.

Until now.

It was slipping away. The shadows that had reached out from the corners of his mind and dragged him under were receding, slowly finding their way back to the corners of his mind, and then vanishing altogether. They left behind a sort of heaviness, but it wasn't enough to keep him in that blissful state of non-awareness.

Then he could move.

He didn't do so right away. He was just suddenly aware of his limbs again. He could feel his fingers and toes, then, slowly, his arms and legs, followed by the rest of his body. Everything throbbed, and he wished again that the darkness would take him, even though the pain was muted from the last time he remembered feeling anything. He took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly, feeling his body sink into the mattress as he did so-

Wait.

A mattress?

Almost against his will, Austin twitched his fingers, feeling the material he was lying on. Yes, those were definitely sheets, he thought. And that was definitely a mattress. It was almost uncomfortable, lying down on something soft after having been tied to a hard chair for days. Almost. The mattress confused him, and even worried him a little. Was he in heaven? Had he let go too soon, even though he'd promised Emma he wouldn't? He breathed deep again, noting the stabbing pains in his chest as he did. Well, he decided, it certainly didn't feel like he was dead.

It was then that Austin's other senses came to him. First was scent. Wherever he was, it smelt familiar, in a way that made him nervous and brought back faded memories that he couldn't quite get a firm grip on. Next was his hearing. Quite suddenly, the sound of beeping reached his ears, along with the noisy sounds of machines, and something a bit more subtle… someone breathing, maybe?

Austin waited for a moment for sight to process. When it didn't, he felt confused, until he realised that his eyes were closed. He thought about it for a minute. Should he open his eyes? Did he want to open them? Eventually, curiosity made both questions irrelevant.

Austin opened his eyes.

It was more difficult then he'd expected it to be. He felt as though there were weights on his eyelids, trying to force them shut. But after a brief struggle, Austin won out and managed to keep his eyes open. He blinked, taking in the sight.

The first thing he saw was light, blinding and white. The brightness faded after a moment, and Austin registered that he was looking at a ceiling. That wasn't even remotely interesting. He flickered his gaze to the side, and took in the sight of a window, a white wall and some machines that were making the slightly annoying sounds. That was somewhat more interesting. Then he turned his gaze to the other side, and found something very interesting.

His friends and family.

Austin blinked a few times again, fighting the urge to pinch himself to check if it was a dream. The pain everywhere in his body was proof enough that he was neither dead nor dreaming. That meant this was real. They really where there. Sitting around a little coffee table, playing a game of go fish, probably because it was the only game of cards that Dez knew how to play. Trish was looking annoyed, his parents tired, Dez childish. Nothing out of place. Except…

"Where's Ally?" Austin had to work hard to make his words loud enough so they would hear. They did hear and, as one, all of them jumped to their feet and walked over to him, with big grins and a few 'Austin!'s. He was very happy to see them, and grinned right back at them, but they hadn't answered his question. So he repeated "Where's Ally?"

Dez answered, smiling broadly. "She went to get Tilly. Something about that detective, I think." He waved his hand dismissively, as if it didn't really matter to him. It probably didn't.

Trish frowned at him, and then clarified to Austin. "Tilly's been helping out a bit. Ally should be back any minute, she'll explain everything."

'Any minute' couldn't have come sooner, and Austin means that literally. Trish had no sooner finished speaking that the girl in question came darting into the room, hair flying around her and face flushed from running. She came to an abrupt standstill as she took in the scene, her eyes widening in shock. So many emotions crossed her face in the space of a few seconds, Austin couldn't keep up with any of it. He had a feeling, though, that this moment was as surreal to her as it was to him.

Everyone else in the room had gone quiet, backing away from the bed, clearing the path between the two best friends. Still, neither made a move, not knowing what to do or say. Austin glanced down for a millisecond, searching for something to say. To his delight, he found it, wrapped around his left arm.

Austin looked up at Ally. Then, grinning, he lifted his arm and said. "Check it out, Ally. I got a cast!"

The tension was broken instantly, and Ally let out a laugh, her face breaking into a wide smile. She was beside him in an instant and, paying no heed to the many machines that Austin had only just realised were tied to him, she threw her arms around him, pulling him into a hug. Austin hugged her back with one arm, the other one being in a cast, not caring about the pain it was causing him. He was too happy to care.

After several longs moments, Ally finally pulled back, setting Austin back on his pillows gently and keeping only his hand, hers of which Austin held onto like a lifeline. They were both still grinning from ear to ear. The others closed in around the bed Ally pulled away, all of them smiling from the reunion. Or maybe they were smiling because they were happy to see him again. Whatever it was, it just lifted Austin's spirits even more.

Austin's mom was delighted. "Oh, that's my smart little boy." She said, making him blush in embarrassment. "You were so brave, honey. I'm so proud."

"That was some good thinking, son." Austin's father added. "Clearly you get that from me." His smile was cocky, and his wife jumped in immediately, saying it was her genetics that gave Austin his brains. Austin smiled on at their antics, that is, until he remembered.

These were his loving parents. But they were also the two people who had abandoned their daughter, giving her away illegally to a man who had put her through almost ten years of suffering. He could never see them the same way again, even if they had never been anything but good parents to him. Emma had changed that…

"Where's Emma?" Austin suddenly asked, looking at the doorway, half-expecting her to walk in at that moment. She should be there. Why wasn't she?

"The albino?" Ally asked. Austin nodded, worried by her somber expression. She sighed, closing her eyes for a second, and then continued "They didn't find her, Austin. She's disappeared."

For a second, Ally words didn't process, and simply rang around in his head, bouncing off the walls of his mind. Then they sunk in, and Austin's good mood plummeted. She can't have disappeared. He had been going to take her home and watch out for her like a proper big brother should. He had been going to show her freedom and the wonders of life. He'd been going to give her a family again, just like she deserved. She was his sister, his long lost, one and only little sister.

She couldn't just be gone.

"Disappeared?" Austin managed to ask. Everyone had noticed how much Ally's words bothered him, and they all had question marks written on their faces. Austin kept his gaze on Ally, the only one who didn't seem overly surprised at his expression of emotion for the albino.

"I'm sure she's okay." Ally said reassuringly. "They didn't find any blood, or signs of a struggle. It looks like she just ran off."

Austin dredged up the memories of his last moment with her, and almost did a double take when they played out in his mind. He remembered it perfectly. The crazy symbols and writings. Emma getting mad. Emma pushing the maniac against the wall, killing him. Everything that should have been impossible, but he had seen happen anyways. Then she'd pushed his journal in his hand, and had gone away somewhere. Then he'd blacked out.

Austin looked at Ally with a sense of urgency. "She gave me her diary. Where is it?" Ally pointed with her free hand to a spot next to him, and Austin looked over to the little bedside table. Sure enough, there was Emma's diary, brown and worn, just as it had been the last time he'd seen it. He relaxed considerably.

"I told the doctors to keep it safe." Ally said. "I figured it was important."

Austin smiled at her. "Thanks Ally."

"Who was she?" Austin's mom asked, before anyone else could voice the question. She had an air of nervousness about her that was uncommon, but also reminded him strikingly of Emma. He glanced back and forth between his parents, and finally saw it, the similarity. Emma had their mother's eyes (barring the colour) and nose, but the rest of her facial complexion came from their father. She had mother's delicate touch and compassion, and father's spontaneous creativity. He was almost surprised that no one else could see it, even if they'd only seen her for a few seconds on a video. Looking at his parents now, it was obvious.

But he couldn't tell his friends the truth about her. Not now, with his parents both staring him down. It took Austin one glance at their expressions for him to realise that they did, in fact, know who she was. They had most likely recognised her the moment they'd seen her in the video. Well, that was comforting. At least they hadn't forgotten what their daughter looked like. He eventually looked away from his parents, unable to look in their eyes anymore, and found comfort in Ally's soft, beautiful brown eyes.

"She's a friend." Austin finally decided to say. "She saved me more than once down there. I owe her a lot." That was the truth, if not all of it. Austin's parents looked relieved, and he wanted to scowl at them. But he didn't. It wasn't time yet.

"She gave you her diary?" Ally asked to clarify. He nodded. "Why?"

Austin looked at the book, sitting on the table looking so innocent, yet probably harboured all sorts of dark secrets and stories. "I don't know." Austin responded truthfully. He'd have to check the page she marked for him later. It would probably solve that particular mystery.

"Well." Trish said, after a few more moments of silence. She gave Austin and Ally an amused look, having noticed their entwined hands. "I have to make a few calls, tell the folks you're alive and all that. Come on Dez." Trish turned and grabbed the ginger by the wrist before he could protest. He shot Austin a fleeting look of panic, and he laughed. Those two were incredible sometimes.

Austin's parents stayed a little while longer, asking how he was feeling, if he needed any medication, if he wanted anything from the hotel. After assuring them again and again that he was fine, they finally left the room too, leaving him alone with Ally.

Austin momentarily felt nervous. He was suddenly very aware of the fact that they were holding hands, as well as the warm sparks that were shooting up his arm because of it. He looked at the beautiful girl who was looking at him with those piercing brown eyes, and his entire body was suddenly screaming for him to lean in, to pull her closer, press his lips against hers…

"How are you holding up?" Ally asked. The spell was broken- partially- and Austin relaxed on his pillow.

"I'll be okay." He said. So long as his legs healed properly, he'd be fine, at least physically. He had all those issues around Emma to sort through, but he wasn't quite ready to share them, not even with the woman he loves. It was a conversation for another time. He knew that Ally could sense that he wouldn't elaborate, so she didn't press for details.

"How are you?" Austin asked. Ally was sensitive. He could only imagine what she had gone through while he was locked up in the basement.

"I'm good. Now that you're back, and awake." Ally said, smiling. This made Austin blush while grinning, and he looked down at their entwined hands. He rubbed his thumb against the back of her hand, hoping to distract himself.

"Just don't ever do that again." Ally continued. Austin recalled her telling him this earlier, but figured that she probably thought he couldn't remember the moment. He looked up at her again, noticing the distressed look on her face. A strand of hair had fallen out of place, and on impulse, he pulled his hand out of hers and reached out, tucking that strand of hair behind her ear. Her cheeks went a little pink and she grinned, which Austin took as a good sign.

"I won't. I promise." He told her. "I couldn't do that to you." His words rang with truth, and she blushed to an even deeper shade of red, looking down at her hands. Austin could still see her smile.

"Thank you." She finally mumbled, still not looking up.

Trish took that moment to burst into the room again, Dez in tow. The tension that had been building between the two broke instantly, and they both grinned, greeting their friends. They both sat down around the bed, and Trish started to tell him the story of everything that had happened on their end from the moment he vanished, telling him about Tilly and the detective and how Ally deciphered the message and the search. The other two jumped in to sometimes add a forgotten detail. Austin smiled on and listened. He'd taken Ally's hand again before she could get away, and as he sat there, with his three best friends in the whole world, laughing and joking as if nothing had happened, Austin remembered that there was such thing as happiness.

And it was finally, once again, in reach.


	20. Endings and Beginnings

**So, here it is, the last chapter. The end of the story. This is the first time I've ever actually finished a story I've written, and I'm so, so proud of myself. I want to thank everyone who's read the story all the way through, and a special shout out to everyone who's reviewed, favorite or followed the story. It was the motivation I needed. **

**Enjoy! **

**P.S. The song in this chapter is 'Say you like me' by We the Kings. I don't own it. Feel free to listen to it when it comes up in the story. I did alter a couple lyrics though, so it would apply better. **

**Disclaimer: Yeah. I own nothing. **

The town of Miami, Florida, was renowned for many things; the sun, the ocean, various sites and some popularity with pop stars. But the one thing that made Miami so unforgettable was what happened there on the day of Austin Moon's return home.

All hometowns to any sort of star tend to be proud of the fact, proud to say they were home to someone most people have at least heard of. So, it was no surprise that Miami was devastated when Austin disappeared, and doubly delighted when he was found alive. People from Austin's immediate community began planning welcome home parties left right and center, and there were fights as to who would get to use the sonic boom as their party headquarters (Mr. Dawson won that battle). The party plans were quickly turning to disaster as more fights broke out over the simplest of things.

The solution came from a mall association meeting, the very same mall that housed the Sonic Boom. The store owners of the mall gathered together and decided; if they can't have a series of small parties, then they'd have one big party, one that they would host in that very mall.

So the people of the town set to work, decorating the mall with various things from the stores themselves. Several disco balls hung from various parts of the ceiling, and music was provided, that would be played over the mall sound system. I giant 'welcome home' banner hung over the entrance to the mall, and it had Austin's face printed on it. Everyone was invited, and the mall association looked forward with excitement to their superstar's return home.

Austin knew that Miami was proud of him, but that didn't even remotely prepare him for the scene awaiting him when he got off the plane. The crowd had already gathered in excitement, all wanting to catch the first glimpse of their hero. Many of them had banners and signs and a few things they wanted to say. Austin had gotten used to the paparazzi by now, but he was usually left to his own business when in Miami. He was absolutely floored by the scene in the airport.

To be honest, it brought him to tears.

It also made it rather difficult to get anywhere. Though Austin was the main focus, his friends and family were also receiving a lot of attention, particularly Ally, due to her newfound reputation of having solved Austin's case. Her eyes had gone wide with fear when she realised how much attention was on her, and she had a chunk of hair in her mouth the whole time they were in the airport. Her only distraction was helping Austin, who was on crutches and thus unable to carry his own things.

Austin did his best to smile at the crowd and portray positivity to the best of his abilities, but even though he was warmed to the core by the attention, he was nothing short of exhausted and wanted desperately the comfort and warmth of his own bed. The people of Miami would have none of that, however. They'd been planning the party at the mall for a whole week and couldn't wait to kick it off. So it was with a bit of exasperation that the group made their way to the mall, their luggage still in tow.

When the group finally reached the mall and stumbled out of the car, Austin thought for a moment that they'd been taken to the wrong place, until he processed the giant 'welcome home' banner. Even so, his shock had drawn him to a standstill, as well as the others with him.

The crowd watched him anxiously for a few minutes, particularly those who had helped put together the decorations. No one dared make a sound, in case they missed Austin's reaction. As it was, he really wasn't showing anything- until his face split into a wide, joyous grin.

"Awesome." He said.

And that was all it took for the people gathered to set the party into motion. Someone signalled for a DJ to start the music, and someone else got to work on the lights. Everyone else threw themselves into full celebration mode, and inevitably, Austin and his group were dragged into it all (Except Mr. and Mrs. Moon, who had generously offered to take care of everyone's luggage by taking it to their homes).

Austin spent most of his night by the food and beverage tables, chatting with various people, smiling and laughing. He would've liked to dance, but his injuries made that impossible. Besides, as it was, Dez was making enough of a spectacle to compensate for both of them. The only time he tried to dance was when Ally came over to him and dragged him onto the dance floor for a slow song. He'd gone beat red, stammering the whole time, tripping over his feet more than once (which just made Ally laugh). After that, he'd refused to let anyone else drag him onto the dance floor.

The party went on into the early hours of the morning, by which time team Austin had retired to bed. Most hadn't even noticed them leave, they were having so much fun. In fact, the party was such a success, that it was decided that they would have a party like that every year, celebrating the day Austin Moon came home. They decided to call it Austin Moon Day.

In the days that followed the successful party, people watched Austin with morbid curiosity, wanting to see how he was coping with the trauma. Most would agree that he was handling everything extremely well. He went about his usual routine, hanging out with his friends, getting into trouble, and even had gone back to making music with his partner. It was as if he'd never been taken.

In fact, the only sign that he'd been through any sort of trauma was the worn out diary he carried with him everywhere. No one dared ask what, or whose, it was. After all, it wasn't their business. But people still wondered what could be so important about that book.

Austin didn't even know why he carried the book everywhere. He hadn't even had the resolve to open it yet to the page his sister had marked. What he did know was that that little book was all he had of his sister at the moment. Also, he didn't entirely trust his parents not to flip through the journal should he leave it at home.

That was why, exactly one week after Austin's return home, which was exactly three weeks after his rescue, Austin found himself sitting on the counter at the Sonic Boom, staring at the journal in his hands, wondering, again, if now was the time to open it.

"Austin?"

He looked up at the sound of his name, and smiled when he saw it was Ally. She was wearing another dress, a red one with a floral pattern on the skirt. She'd styled her hair like she always did, in perfect waves that fell down her back. She was breathtaking, as per usual, and it took all of Austin's concentration not to become mesmerised. It had happened more than once since his return. You can only imagine how embarrassing it was whenever she caught him staring at her with a dreamy expression.

Austin looked down to hide his blush. "Yeah?"

She took a step forward and frowned. "Are you okay?"

This made him smile. If he had a quarter for every time she'd asked him that since they'd returned… well. He'd have a lot of quarters. "I'm fine, Ally," He said. "Stop worrying so much." He was still smiling.

Ally smiled back. "Well, you know, after everything that happened, you know…" she trailed off and her face was tinged pink. "I'm just saying, if you want someone to talk to, I'm here, okay?"

"Noted." Austin said. The two smiled at each other for a moment, in comfortable silence. Then, Austin said "Where's Trish and Dez? I haven't seen them around today."

Ally gave him a knowing look and made a show of looking down at her watch. She held up her hand and counted down "Five, four, three, two, one…"

"Guess who got a job at The Hat Store!" Trish announced, showing off her sunhat with a flourish.

Austin laughed so hard, he fell backward off the counter. Trish gave him and Ally strange look, who was also choking on her laughter.

"Did I miss something?" She asked. That just made the others laugh harder.

"From down there, you probably miss all sorts of things." Came a new voice. Trish turned to the ginger that had spoken and gave him a menacing look. Dez jumped back in fear, and quickly turned his attention to Austin and Ally, no doubt hoping for some sort of distraction. "Hey Ally, you got that new song finished yet?" He asked.

"Almost." She answered. Austin grinned. The new song was sort of entered around his experience, talking about embracing life and its wonders. It was incredible, as per usual.

"That's great. I have all sorts of ideas for this video. I've almost decided, but all I can say is that it has to do with peanuts!" Dez declared, pulling out a jar of peanuts from his backpack as he did. They all raised their eyebrows at him.

Austin smiled at his friend. "Awesome!" He decided. He loved peanuts, after all. He jumped off the counter and snatched the jar out of Dez's hands, and proceeded to eating the peanuts. The girls just rolled their eyes at him.

"Austin!" Dez protested. He pouted like a five year old. "Now I have to go get more peanuts." With that, he stormed out of the store. Austin just smiled at his friend's retreating form, not feeling guilty whatsoever. He'd probably forget about what was bothering him halfway to the store, and then he'd wonder why he was going to the store in the first place.

"That reminds me, I should probably go." Trish said, looking at the time. "I started work three hours ago. Catch you guys later." With that, she left. Ally just shook her head. Austin knew she didn't approve of Trish's work ethics. He'd expect no less from her. After a moment, she turned to Austin, her brows furrowed.

"What on earth could peanuts have to do with our song?" She asked. This sent Austin into another fit of giggles, and Ally quickly joined in. Some customers gave them strange looks, but none of them asked. They knew who they were, after all, and expected nothing short of pure insanity from them.

After a few moments, the two quieted down, and Austin found himself looking down at the journal in his hands again. Half the time, he'd forget he was holding it, and yet he'd never put it down. Ally followed his gaze and shifted back into serious mode.

"Why do you carry that around with you?" Ally asked. Austin hadn't told her everything about Emma, and he knew some things about her, like the journal, frustrated her to no end. Austin felt bad about annoying her, but he wasn't ready to talk about Emma. For now, who she was was a secret he was keeping close to his heart.

"I don't know." Austin answered her as truthfully as he could. "I guess it's just all I have left of her, you know? I just don't want to put it down."

Ally sighed. She took a step forward and, taking Austin totally by surprise, she reached out and held his hand. He desperately hoped that she wouldn't notice how red his face just went.

"You've never even opened it." Ally noted, still looking at the book.

It took Austin a minute to find his voice. "No." He admitted. "She marked a page for me, but…" His voice trailed off, not knowing what to say.

Ally looked up at him, and gave his hand squeeze. "You should read it. She didn't give you the book and mark a page just so you could stare at it all the time." She joked.

Austin smiled slightly. "I guess so." He said, still uncertain.

A costumer called Ally over at that moment, and she went to help, leaving Austin staring at the book. He still wasn't sure if he should open it. He wasn't sure if he wanted to know what she'd written down for him. What if it was something awful, another secret that could change his life? What if it was about what happened when she pushed him? He didn't know if he wanted to know what had happened there. And yet, Ally was right. She wouldn't have given him her personal diary, with a page marked no less, just so he could stare at it. She wanted him to read it. He had to respect that. So, glancing overtly around to make sure no one was watching, Austin steeled his resolve and, taking a deep breath, opened the book to the marked page, and read:

_Hey Austin. If you're reading this, then I guess I didn't go with you back to Miami. Sorry about that. There are just some things I need to know, some answers that aren't in Miami. I'm sure we'll see each other again someday. Until then, keep my book. You can read it all, though I'm not sure if you want to. Also, I wrote the song below. It's for Ally, from you. I've been working on it for a while, and I only just finished it. It's up to you whether or not you're gonna sing it to her. I hope you do. _

_Love, your sister, Emma_

_Song title: Say you like me _

_She's the girl that no one ever knows._

_And I say hi, but she's too shy to say hello._

_She's just waiting for that one to take her hand_

_And shake her up._

_I bet I could._

_I wish my heart was always on her mind._

_'Cause she's on mine like all day, all the time._

_Forget me not, forget me now._

_I've come too far to turn around._

_I'm here tonight._

_'Cause I'm never going down,_

_I'm never giving up._

_I'm never gonna leave,_

_So put your hands up._

_If you like me,_

_Then say you like me._

_I'm never going down,_

_I'm never giving up._

_I'm never gonna leave,_

_So put your hands up._

_If you like me,_

_Then say you like me._

_Whoa, oh, oh, oh.(x4)_

_She's the girl that no one ever knows._

_Works a double shift just to buy her clothes._

_Crazy teens and faded dreams,_

_Baby, just believe_

_There's no one else like me._

_'Cause I'm never going down,_

_I'm never giving up._

_I'm never gonna leave,_

_So put your hands up._

_If you like me,_

_Then say you like me._

_I'm never going down,_

_I'm never giving up._

_I'm never gonna leave,_

_So put your hands up._

_If you like me,_

_Then say you like me._

_Whoa, oh, oh, oh. (x4)_

_It's time to fall into my arms._

_'Cause I've been waiting for too long._

_You're an angel,_

_Grab your halo,_

_And let's fly tonight._

_'Cause I'm never going down,_

_I'm never giving up._

_I'm never gonna leave,_

_So put your hands up._

_If you like me,_

_Then say you like me._

_'Cause I'm never going down,_

_I'm never giving up._

_I'm never gonna leave,_

_So put your hands up._

_If you like me,_

_Then say you like me._

_I'm never going down,_

_I'm never giving up._

_I'm never gonna leave,_

_So put your hands up._

_If you like me,_

_Then say you like me._

_Whoa, oh, oh, oh. (x4)_

_Just say you like me. _

Austin drifted to the end of the page, and found that he had a smile plastered on his face. So, that's what she'd been doing when she'd been writing in her diary while he'd talk about his life. She'd nailed it, too. It was perfect for the situation he was in with Ally. His gaze drifted back up to her letter. She said they'd meet again someday. He had to believe her.

The sound of instruments crashing to the ground shook him back to reality. He looked up, to find Ally in the middle of a pile of instruments, a sheepish look on her face. She caught his eye.

"A little help please?" She said.

"Sure" Austin said, smiling, as he pushed himself off the counter. He closed the book and set it down for the first time since Emma had given it to him, leaving it under the counter while he went to help Ally clean up the mess.

One day, he thought. One day, he'd sing that song to Ally, and sweep her off her feet. One day, he'd find his sister again. He'd tell his friends about her and they'd welcome her into the group. One day, he'd help her solve the mystery of her life, and the mystery of what happened the day he was rescued.

But that's another story.

**And there we have it. One last announcement everyone! Wait for it (drum roll)…. I'm making a sequel! Yeah. I just couldn't bring myself to leave the story at that. The sequel is going to be called 'The Shadows in the Corner' and it's going to be a supernatural/romance story. I'm hoping to post it in the next couple of weeks. I hope you're looking forward to it as much as I am! **

**Until next time, everyone! **


End file.
